


The Darkest Deluge

by bad choice of username (scribbler_unsure)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alien Invasion, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Dimension Travel, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-07
Updated: 2014-07-31
Packaged: 2017-12-31 19:20:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 36
Words: 87,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1035425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scribbler_unsure/pseuds/bad%20choice%20of%20username
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cloud Strife wakes up one day, and the world is ending outside his window. As an artificially grown super soldier, he is part of his planet's last line of defence. But the wave of aliens doesn't have an end, and Cloud's world falls. There might be hope yet, for Cloud and the boy he saves. Beyond the gates to a different dimension, humanity is still fighting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A world ends

**Author's Note:**

> I'm doing another project for NaNo, and will only be able to come back to this one sometime in December. I really want to finish it, because Cloud and Leon are my first OTP and Kingdom Hearts is my first fandom, so there will be updates. Just not very soon.

Crouched atop the metal railing of a tall building's last remaining balcony, Cloud watched an alien chase down a family of three. The monster's black form moved fluidly, fast, but not as fast as Cloud knew an alien cold go. It was toying with its prey, apparently relishing their terror. The wispy end of its long tail curled and twisted, betraying excitement.

Cloud fought to unclench his jaw and pry his fingernails from the insides of his palms. If he bled, he wouldn't be able to grip his sword properly, and that would be the end of it. He could maybe take the one alien, but this area was full of the creatures. They must have found a sizeable group of survivors holed up somewhere.

Cloud forced his gaze away from the scene below as the alien sank its three rows of needle-like teeth into the woman's arm – the arm not occupied with a baby. Nothing he could do, except get himself killed and fed on, and that would be like aiding the enemy.

He stepped off the railing quietly and backed through the shattered door and into the building. He tried not to look at the body of his fallen comrade and left the apartment. Ground floor was dangerous, and the streets were a phenomenally bad idea, so Cloud made his way up the main staircase, to the roof. Buildings were packed tight in this part of the city. He should have minimal trouble travelling from rooftop to rooftop.

Once under the open sky – a mockingly ordinary blue, it was – Cloud set down his pack. His gun and all of the ammo had to go. Bullets were useless against the aliens. Not only were their bodies thin and streamlined, like some hellish versions of the cheetah's grace, but their skin was hard and slick. Bullets mostly slid off them, or went right through the gaps of their strange, skeletal anatomy.

The only effective way of fighting them seemed to be swords and blunt weapons. Crushing the protruding bones and cutting off limbs took a lot of work, but at least the aliens were killable.

Cloud repacked all of his supplies so that it would make minimal noise when he moved, strapped his sword to his back, and took off in the direction he thought was south. His unit was gone, the last line of defence lost. Cloud might as well move towards what was already destroyed, hide behind enemy lines until the conquest of his world was over and the aliens started paying more attention to what they left in their wake.

And once that happened, well. He would try to take a few of them with him.

***

He dug himself a hole in the rubble of a small house, filled it with as much dirt and rags as he could find in the vicinity, and settled in for the night. It was cold no matter how tightly he curled up, but lighting a fire would be suicide.

The cold northern wind was blowing strong. Soon, it would bring the rains. Cloud didn't worry about it too much. His supplies would last him about two weeks, if he found clean water. Otherwise he had less than a week before dehydration would make him useless.

He sighed and squirmed, folding his hands under his head. If he didn't find any water, he would just have to light a fire and wait for the aliens to come to him. Cloud would make sure his last stand was one to be remembered. Even if only the aliens were there to witness it.

Comforted by that thought, he let himself relax. He was right on the edge of sleep when his heightened soldier's senses picked up movement. Cloud could feel his body react to the mako-fuelled adrenaline surge. He kept his eyes closed, lest the glow betray his position, and listened.

A couple of aliens, as far as he could tell. They walked right over the outcropping of rubble under which Cloud lay. They were moving very quietly, hunting something. Cloud frowned. He moved one hand to press over a secure pocket in his vest. He had two pills left. He would rather not use any now, but if there were only two aliens around, and someone's life was on the line, he might.

Cloud waited for the aliens to move away before slipping from his hiding place. He strapped on his sword and followed the creatures, using every ounce of stealth he possessed.

***

Sora woke up fighting. He wasn't sure what he was fighting at first, but his hopes of facing fellow humans were dashed as the pipe fragment he always clutched in his sleep connected with something hard and made a dull sound. Aliens, then. A human bone would have cracked.

That was it, then. In total darkness, with no chance to find his bearings, Sora was not going to survive a single alien, and the creatures rarely moved alone. He gritted his teeth anyway, grabbed onto a slimy part of carapace, and swung the pipe towards the thing. Claws dug into his thigh and he screamed, hit harder. He pushed at the alien with his other hand, fighting to avoid its teeth.

Sora was exhausted and weakening with every second. Distantly, he was aware that there was no real point in fighting. Stopping was not something he could force his body to do, though.

Suddenly, there was a crackling sound and a military flare landed to Sora's right, blinding him temporarily. The alien, the nocturnal creature that it was, was even more disoriented. Sora blinked furiously, desperate to see despite the bright lights dancing in his vision. He turned the pipe around in his hand so that its sharp end faced the alien, and stabbed. Blurry as his vision was, he only managed to jam the pipe into the crevice behind the alien's snapping jaws on the third try. Sora pushed the pipe sharply in a practised move. The alien made a clicking, growling sound, its movements became frantic as it attempted to back away. Sora brought his other hand around and with a strained grunt pulled most of his torso off the ground. His weight did the job. The alien's skull cracked, and a thick black substance started trickling down the pipe and onto Sora's hands.

The alien twitched and sunk to the ground, half onto Sora, who panicked. The flare went out. If there were more of the creatures around, he needed to get up fast. He pushed and squirmed, but his arms were numb, his whole body heavy with exhaustion. Sora heard the crunch of gravel right next to his ear and screwed his eyes shut, preparing for a very painful death.

“Let me help you with that,” said a voice.

Sora's eyes snapped open. About six feet above him, a pair of glowing blue eyes met his shocked stare. The weight of the alien was lifted off him and to the side.

“Um,” Sora said.

“Get up,” said the voice, which was definitely male.

Before Sora could process the order, there was a firm hand pulling him up roughly.

“Are you bleeding?” asked the voice.

Sora shook his head, swayed on his feet a little. “Whoa. Uh, possibly?” From up close, the eyes looked impossibly bright. It kind of hurt to look at them. “You are a soldier, right? Where's the rest of your unit?”

“Dead.”

Sora deflated, cursing inwardly. But one soldier was still better than none. “Oh, sorry to hear that. And thanks for the rescue.”

“We'll talk later.” The voice sounded irritated now. “Grab what you need and follow me.”

“Oh, right. Um.”

Sora dropped to the ground and pawed about for his bag. Then he tried to pull his pipe from the alien corpse, but it wouldn't budge. He looked to the blue eyes, which rolled heavenwards and Sora was pushed to the side. He watched as the soldier's dark silhouette dislodged the pipe with very little effort. He felt much better once he had the pipe back in his hand where it belonged.

“Is that it?” the soldier asked.

“Yep.”

Sora was grabbed by the strap of his bag and pulled into a fast march. He stumbled, but caught himself.

“Hey!” he hissed, and was ignored. “Tell me your name at least.”

“Cloud,” was the clipped response.

“Right. I'm Sora. Nice to meet you.”

Cloud said nothing, and remained silent for the rest of the night. They stopped by a heap of rubble. Cloud retrieved what looked like a military backpack from a body-sized hole, then walked off towards a crumbling building, one of the few still standing in the area. The aliens hadn't destroyed them. It had been the weapons deployed against them that caused the most damage to the surroundings. Sora remembered hiding in a basement on more than one occasion, listening to the explosions going on above and hoping to hell no bomb would fall on top of him.

The house Cloud chose was missing a whole wall and the roof. It looked about to collapse. Cloud managed to throw his bag over the edge of the second story floor, then pulled a series of parkour moves and got up there himself. It gave Sora some reassurance concerning the house's stability. He went inside and wandered about the ground floor until he found a staircase, like a normal person.

Cloud was leaning against a remaining bit of wall, cross-legged on the floor. A few tufts of his spiky hair stuck out over the edge of the wall. Cloud's eyes were closed, but Sora was mostly certain the man wasn't sleeping.

“I'm going to try and sleep,” Sora said, not expecting a reply. He curled up in a corner and tried his best to get comfortable. Sleep just wouldn't come to him, though.

***

Cloud watched Sora's attempt at sleep from under hooded eyelids. He didn't like wasting the energy that the mako pill gave him, but moving at night with the boy in tow wasn't a safe idea. It didn't matter anyway. He doubted there were more people for him to save. The last pill he could save for whenever the aliens would get the better of him.

The sky turned grey with the dawn of a new day. With a series of soft grunts, Sora pulled himself onto all fours, then into a standing position. Cloud looked him over, searching for any damage he might have missed earlier.

“Hello,” Sora said. “Huh. Your eyes are way less glowy now. Like, almost dull. Also very red.”

Cloud shrugged. “That's normal.”

“Hmm.” Sora wandered over the the edge of the floor. He squinted. “Oh wow, it felt like we were walking for miles last night, but the aliens are right there. Three of them, holy shit. You sure are good at killing those things.”

“You aren't bad at it, either. Though you could have avoided taking so much damage.”

Sora looked down at himself. Searching hands soon followed his gaze. His shirt was torn and bloody, but as far as Cloud could tell, it wasn't serious.

“Damn. I need to get all these kitty scratches cleaned up.”

Infection was a possibility, of course. Cloud shook his head. “We don't have enough water.”

Sora sighed. “Yeah. Maybe it'll start raining soon...”

Cloud considered the boy. Sora wasn't much shorter than him, but he definitely was much more scrawny. He seemed energetic enough, though.

“How old are you, Sora?”

“Seventeen. You?”

Cloud contemplated not answering, but it was only fair. “Twenty-three.” He looked up at the clear blue sky. It would be best if they moved away from the area, but he didn't think Sora was up to a ten kilometre run, so they would have to wait.

“Do you want to stay here today?” Sora asked. The boy was strangely acute.

“Yes. A patrol of aliens should show up soon, confirm the others' death. We can either stay put or start running now and not stop until I think we're safe.”

“Oh. Um. I think I prefer the first option.”

Cloud nodded tiredly. “I'm going to rest. You don't need to worry about waking me up if something happens.”

“'Kay.”

Cloud closed his eyes and focused most of his attention on his breathing. Slowly, he let himself sink into a meditative state, relaxing his body but keeping his senses alert.

***

From atop the bared roof beams of a nearby, taller house, two figures watched as Sora got busy cleaning his cuts with a tiny slip of fabric and spit.

Yuffie made a face. “Can we stop watching now?”

Leon shook his head. “You heard the older one. More Dark Ones should appear soon.”

“I guess these two are more entertaining than rubble and ruins,” Yuffie said, and sighed. “I don't like staying around people if we can't help.” It wasn't fair. These two had so much fight left in them. They didn't deserve to die.

Leon stared on ahead, expression blank. “Follow the rules, Yuffie.”

“I know. I will. It's not easy, though.”

“Nothing is easy any more.” A hint of a smile appeared on Leon's face. “And maybe it never had been.”


	2. Blackout

Cloud felt more than heard their approach. He was suddenly very awake, and he just knew it wasn't a false alarm. He allowed himself to tense up gradually, keeping his breathing steady. Now was not the time for an adrenaline surge. He might need it later.

He glanced at Sora, who was still cleaning up his cuts busily with an expression of pained annoyance.

“Sora, get over here and lay down by the wall.”

Sora's eyes widened, but he did as he was told. “What now?”

“Just breathe. Try not to think about it.”

Sora fidgeted. “Can I go get my pipe?”

“Yeah, just don't make too much noise.” The aliens weren't very close yet. Once Sora was back by the wall with his pipe in hand, Cloud closed his eyes again. “No more talking.”

“Gotcha.”

They waited. Cloud felt himself grow more tense with every soft footstep his hearing could register. The aliens weren't being quiet at all, and they came in number. At least half a dozen, Cloud judged. He let his fingertips touch the sword laying on the ground along his right thigh. Six was too much. He had one mako pill, a sword and a teenager. With another soldier at his back, his chances would have been pretty good. Sora, though capable, was just a boy with a rusty pipe.

The pill was also problematic. If Cloud took it so soon after his last mako high, it would not only be much less effective than usually, it might incapacitate him. He didn't want to risk it. If the aliens found them, he and Sora had no chance of survival, so Cloud wouldn't have to protect himself during the fight. He could do quite a bit of damage without the pill that way.

He listened as the aliens drew closer, now almost certain that there were six of them. They paced around the bodies at first, then spread out into the surrounding ruins. They conversed in their clicking, hissing tongue. Cloud recognised some sounds, but the main thing to pay attention to was the pitch: the lower it went, the angrier an alien was. And these six were growling so lowly that Cloud registered the vibrations more than the sounds.

It had to be personal then.

Cloud opened his eyes and met Sora's frightened gaze. He gave the boy a thin smile, and was surprised at the understanding that filled Sora's expression. Sora's eyes slid shut, his brows came together in pained frown. When he opened his eyes again they were a bit wetter, but determined. Cloud smiled wider. He allowed himself to feel the excitement that came before a fight, let the adrenaline rush through his veins as his heartbeat sped up.

This was it, then. These were his last moments, and he felt lighter, almost happy. No more worrying about anything, no more constant tension. Just this last bit of effort before he could finally rest.

The atmosphere shifted suddenly, and Cloud knew they had been discovered. He gripped his sword and let years of training and battle take over. He lunged forward just as one of the aliens landed in front of him on its dainty little feet. Cloud put the momentum behind his roll into the swing and brought his sword right through the creature's shoulder and back, almost decapitating it. He landed in a crouch, and straightened, pushing a foot against the newly dead alien's head to dislodge his sword.

Low growling and clicking filled the air, ringing in Cloud's ears and producing an instant headache. He ignored it. The next alien lunged at him from the balcony of another building. Cloud simply let himself fall back and collide with the wall, holding his sword ready. The furious creature impaled itself, but it wasn't enough to kill it. Cloud hissed as clawed fingers dug into his shoulder and side, and put all of his upper body strength into hauling the alien up. He pushed with his legs, swung his arms above his head and let the alien slide of his sword and fly over the wall.

The move left him wide open. Cloud watched the open jaws of the next alien speed towards him, fully aware he wouldn't be able to bring his sword back down on time. Then there was a sound like prying open a lobster's carapace as Sora collided with the alien from the side. They fell to Cloud's left, but he didn't have time to pay attention. The next alien came at him, more carefully than its predecessors. It watched Cloud carefully with its narrow, reddish eyes. Cloud could see the intelligence behind that gaze. His arms were heavy and numb as he lifted his sword into a proper guard. The deep scratches on his shoulder and along the right side of his ribcage pulsed with pain. Not much longer, Cloud reminded himself.

He couldn't wait for the alien's next move, there were two more to worry about. So he bent his knees and swung, barely catching the alien across its front legs. It hissed and backed away. Cloud let the force of the swing carry him to the right, slid his left foot forward, and brought the sword down over his right shoulder, nicking the alien once again. He kept swinging until he backed it against the edge of the floor. When its back foot found empty space instead of purchase, it faltered for just a fraction of a second. It was enough for Cloud to split its skull with his sword.

The next thing he knew, something collided into his back. Claws dug into his skin, catching on his ribs, and he was dragged backwards. He heard Sora yell his name, but couldn't tell if it was a cry for help or not. He concentrated on keeping his feet under him and not dropping his sword. The last alien appeared in front of him, hissing and displaying the inky depths of its maw. Cloud had no way to get enough momentum for anything more than a pathetic tap with his sword, so he didn't even try. He shifted his grip instead and took a blind stab at the alien behind him. It released him, taking some of the flesh and skin from his back with it. The sword slid off the alien's carapace and stopped at the floor, giving Cloud enough purchase to kick at the alien in front of him as it lounged. He caught it in the side of the face and it rolled to the side.

Exhausted, Cloud kept his grip on his sword, though he didn't think he had enough strength left to dislodge it from the floor. Something warm and definitely human collided into his back, causing him a world of pain. Sora pressed himself close, panting. There were only two aliens left circling them, so the boy must have dealt with the one he jumped at earlier.

Through sheer force of will, Cloud managed to dislodge his sword and hold it above ground with one hand. He swung it lightly from side to side in a distracting manner. He used his other hand to retrieve the pill, though his numb fingers weren't cooperating. He was dead either way with the amount of blood pouring from his back. But if Sora wasn't too badly damaged and they took care of the two remaining aliens, the boy stood a chance of surviving.

The alien in front of him bent its legs, readying to lunge, and Cloud knew he wouldn't get the pill out in time. He gripped his sword with both hands instead, resolved to stand his ground and serve as a shield between Sora and the creature. He watched as it pushed itself off the floor with grace and precision. It didn't go straight at him but twisted to the side, faster than Cloud could react, and lunged towards his throat.

Time seemed to slow. Cloud wanted to close his eyes but his eyelids wouldn't move fast enough, and so he watched death approach in the form of three rows of black, needle-like teeth.

Then there was a flash of blue light and the creature was thrown to the side by an invisible force. The blast was strong enough that Cloud stumbled a step back, barely managed to drop into a crouch instead of falling onto his ass. Another flash, this time behind him, and the second blast threw him onto his knees. He didn't let go of the sword, struggling to take in the scene in front of him.

The alien that had been about to kill him lay crumpled by the wall, and a man in a fur-collared jacket stepped in front of Cloud. He put one booted foot down onto the sword. Cloud growled and looked up. The man's face was so clean it was out of place, marred only by a long diagonal scar. He was young, fit, and bearing no signs of the war going on around them.

“Relax,” said the man calmly. “I'm helping you.”

“What the fuck, Leon?” demanded another, female voice from somewhere outside Cloud's line of vision. “I thought you said not to break the rules!”

“I told you not to break them, yes,” the man, Leon, replied. “I didn't say I wouldn't.”

“Oh, ha ha, very clever. What do you intend to do now? End his misery or let him bleed to death?”

“Take him with us.”

“What?! Are you crazy?”

Leon stared straight at Cloud, never changing his blank expression, but Cloud was pretty sure he could see a maniacal glint in the man's dark eyes. “Maybe I am. I _want_ him.”

“What?” The other voice wavered. “But. I'm your partner.”

“No, you're not.”

“I am! I was going to get the procedure done in three days!” The female voice was filled with anger.

Leon sighed. “Yuffie, not now. Get the gate open before he dies of blood loss.”

Cloud watched Leon until his eyes slid shut of their own accord. He couldn't feel the pain any more. Not that it mattered.

“What about the other one?” said the other voice, as if from afar.

“I don't care. Take him if you want,” Leon said.

“He'll die if I don't.”

“Correct.”

“We're breaking all the rules anyway.”

“True.”

“All right then.”

Cloud felt a hand land on his shoulder. It was the injured one, and his nerve endings flared back to life to bring him a wave of nauseating pain. So he took the best possible course of action and lost consciousness.


	3. Combatants

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh. I feel awful about updating so slowly, but I'm just really scared I'll post something that I'll want to change later. How do fanfiction authors manage this? I have this whole story plotted out and I'm still pretty sure I'm going to end up changing half of it. I don't want to write myself into a corner, and I don't want to edit chapters once I've posted them. Heeeeelp.

Sora regained consciousness gradually. He fought the murky depths of unconsciousness, motivated by confusion. He was pretty sure he should be dead.

His memories were fuzzy. He remembered the fight, seeing Cloud paint the floor with his own blood. Then a man had appeared, with a sword at his hip that he didn't even touch, and hands surrounded by a blue glow. There had been a flash, a sudden chill – and now Sora was here. He blinked, and pushed himself up onto his elbows.

He was lying on a hospital bed, surrounded by white curtains. Or at least Sora guessed they were white. The light in the room was tinted red. Sora frowned. He didn't recall a hospital being anywhere near the area, much less one that wasn't a crumbling ruin.

“Hey there, sleepyhead,” said a cheerful voice.

Sora's eyes snapped to his left as the curtain was pulled aside, and he was greeted by the sight of a grinning girl. Her face was so close to his that their noses almost touched.

“Meep,” Sora said, and attempted to back away, but couldn't really get the necessary traction against the slick bedsheets.

The girl straightened with a laugh, then perched on the edge of Sora's bed. “Calm down, you're safe now. Remember me?”

“No?” Sora croaked. He cleared his dry throat. “I don't think we've met.”

“What!” Yuffie smacked him on the arm, and he yelped. She didn't lose her smile though. “I was right there saving your ass from the Shadows!”

“The... Shadows?”

“Yeah, the explorer-type Dark Ones. They are the easiest to kill, because their carapaces are the weakest. Like, the Knights are so much more annoying.”

“The Knights.”

“Right. We call them that 'cause they can jump really damn far. You know, like the chess pieces.”

Sora stared. His brain worked sluggishly at forming coherent thought, but the surreality of the situation made things difficult. One moment he was losing the fight for his and Cloud's lives, the next he was on a bed, in – he glanced down at himself to confirm his suspicions – clean clothes, listening to a girl talk about chess pieces.

“Where's Cloud?” Sora demanded.

The girl, Yuffie, blinked at the harsh tone. “Last I heard, he's down the hallway, in a reparation tank.”

Sora had no idea what that meant. “Oh.”

“We can go and see how he's doing, if you want.”

“Good. Let's do that.” Sora swung his legs off the bed, then got up carefully. He expected his legs to give or his head to spin, but nothing of the sort happened. He gave Yuffie and expectant look.

She grinned and pushed the curtain further to the side, revealing the rest of the room. It had two rows of hospital beds, all unoccupied and fitted with pristine – and probably white – sheets. Sora blinked at the cleanliness of it all. He slid one bare foot along the tiled floor.

“Where are we?”

“Ah.” Yuffie frowned. She grabbed Sora's wrist and pulled him along. “That's a little difficult to explain.”

Sora's brow furrowed. “But. You brought me here. You know where we are.”

“I do. I just don't think you're ready to hear it.”

They left the room and entered a hallway. It was lit by dim, reddish lights above every door. And there weren't that many doors. Yuffie walked briskly, taking turns without hesitation, obviously familiar with the place. If not for her hand on his wrist, Sora would have been walking into walls, he could see so little.

“I know this place is kinda intimidating,” Yuffie said as she led Sora up a flight of stairs. “But I bet it's way better than ruins and constant danger.” She flashed Sora a smile over her shoulder.

Sora smiled back uneasily. “I'm not really sure about this place being safe. I mean, you might be taking me to a torture room for all I know.”

Yuffie blinked, then burst out laughing. “Wow, you're funny, kid,” she said once she had caught her breath.

Sora frowned. “I'm not a kid, I'm seventeen. How much older can you be?”

“I'm twenty.”

“That's not much.”

“Ha. But I've spent most of my life fighting for survival. I think that gives me an advantage.”

“What do you mean?”

“No time for explanations,” Yuffie said happily. “We're here.”

She pushed through a double door and walked into a brightly lit room. Relatively brightly lit. Had Sora not gotten used to the semi-darkness of the hallways, he'd probably call the room a bit dim. It had the look of a laboratory, with strange machines and equipment. The most conspicuous was the giant tube with a glass panel, through which most of Cloud's head and torso could be seen. He was floating in some kind of greenish liquid, and a breathing mask covered his mouth and nose. His eyes were closed.

The long haired man with glowing hands – though they weren't glowing now, at all, and were in fact acting like perfectly regular hands – was sitting at a desk to the side of Cloud's tank. He had his chin propped on a fist and was staring at the tank's occupant. Between the thumb and index finger of his other hand, he was rolling something small and round.

“Hi, Leon,” Yuffie said darkly. “I didn't expect to see you here.”

Leon's eyes flicked to her briefly, then rested on Sora. “Hello.”

“Um, hi.” Sora ran a hand through the hair at the back of his head. “I'm Sora. Is... Is Cloud okay?”

Leon shrugged and looked back to the tank. “His surgery went well, but he'll need time to recover.”

“Oh. How much time?”

“A week until he can leave the tank. Another two before he'll become useful.”

“Oh, what a terrible shame that is,” Yuffie said icily. “See, Leon, if you just stuck with your promise you wouldn't have to wait so long.”

Leon glanced at her again, face betraying no emotion. “I have promised you nothing. I was simply going with the best option available at the time.”

Yuffie's expression became murderous. She stalked towards Leon, clearly intending to give him a piece of her mind.

“Give up while you're ahead,” said a calm voice. Sora's eyes snapped to the other side of Cloud's tank as a silver haired boy emerged from an open doorway. “You know you won't be able to rile him up, Yuffie. He's Leon, the king of stoic.”

Leon made an annoyed sound, though the corner of his mouth twitched in what was probably amusement.

“Fuck you all. I need to beat the shit out of a training dummy or something.” With that, Yuffie stormed out of the room.

“Um,” Sora said, unsure if he should follow. He didn't particularly want to. Yuffie's anger was intimidating.

The silver haired boy smiled at him. “Hello, I'm Riku.”

“Sora. Hi.”

“So _you're_ half of the reason why Leon got suspended.”

Sora blinked. “Suspended?”

“Oh yes,” Riku confirmed. “He's stuck here at the medical facility for as long as it'll take this Cloud person to recover. They're going to run all the tests he's behind on.” Riku's grin was somewhat maniacal.

“Doesn't matter,” Leon said calmly. “Being an Observer is no more useful that sitting around all day.”

Riku snorted. “In your case, maybe. You clearly aren't good at it if you can't stop yourself from bringing in strays.”

Leon shrugged. “I just wanted Cloud. Yuffie decided to take the other one with us.”

“His name is Sora.”

Leon gave Riku an unimpressed look. Riku huffed, and turned to Sora, looking him up and down. “Ignore Leon. Hm, you're pretty energetic for someone who hasn't eaten in two days.”

“What?” Sora's eyes widened. “How long was I asleep?”

“About forty hours. The transition is always rough the first couple of times. Messes with your system something terrible.” Riku smiled at Sora's obvious confusion. He grabbed Sora's arm and pulled him towards the door. “Come on. We'll get some food into you.”

“Sora. What is this?” Leon called after them. He was holding up a small, bluish pill.

“I don't know. Why would I know?”

“It's Cloud's.”

“Oh.” Sora racked his brains but nothing came to mind. “Sorry. I've only known the guy for less than like half a day of awake-time.”

Leon hummed and went back to ignoring them. Sora turned to Riku, who gestured towards the door.

***

The cafeteria was a large room with long metal tables framed by two benches each. Everything was set up with military efficiency, without a single piece of decoration. Three tall windows split the wall opposite of the entrance, currently showing nothing but darkness. To Riku's left, the wall-wide panel hiding the automatised kitchen was alight with activity, suggesting that someone had used it recently, or had chosen his meal and was waiting for it to cook.

Sure enough, Riku's gaze caught sight of two figures, seated at a table by one of the windows. Riku frowned as he recognised them. Then he sighed, deciding he might as well get Sora's introductions over with.

“What's up?” Sora asked.

His voice carried across the empty room, and the two figures at the table raised their heads.

“Oh, hey there, Riku,” Axel called, waving. “Who's that with you?”

Sora tilted his head as he took in the redheads appearance. “My name is Sora. I'm, uh, new here.”

“Oooh, fresh meat! Awesome!” Axel grinned and gestured to his companion. “This is Roxas, and I'm Axel. I predict we shall get along swimmingly.”

Riku snorted and grabbed Sora's arm, steering him towards the kitchen panel. “Sure you will. Give us a sec to grab something to eat.”

Riku opted for light food, in case Sora's stomach was out of shape. Salads and sandwiches took little time to prepare, so they waited for their trays to appear in the opening in the panel. Four trays arrived rather than two. Riku and Sora balanced two trays each, and went to sit on the opposite side of the table from Roxas and Axel.

“Thanks,” Roxas said, pulling his tray to himself, and dug into his food.

“So. Sora.” Axel's smile had a lot of teeth. “How do you like the facility?”

“Um.” Sora took a quick bite of his sandwich, and didn't speak until he swallowed. “It's nice? From what I've seen? The dark corridors are very... disturbing. In a good way. Like a scary film.”

“You are a weird kid,” Axel said. He seemed pleased.

“I'm not a kid,” Sora protested. “Why do you people insist on calling me a kid. You can't be much older than me.”

“He's pretty old,” Roxas said.

“I am not.” Axel grabbed Roxas around the neck and proceeded to ruffle his hair mercilessly.

“Ack! Let go!”

“Not until you apologise.”

Riku ignored them and turned to Sora. “Don't worry about them, you won't be seeing them very often.”

“Why not?”

“Roxas and Axel are lucky bastards. They are Combatants, which means--”

“Oh no, stop right there!” Axel waved a hand in front of Riku's face. “You don't get to ruin our air of mystery.”

Riku swatted him away, and turned to Roxas, who still had Axel's arm around his neck – and was grinning like an evil maniac. Riku said, “I think you two have a bad influence on each other.”

“Nonsense,” Axel said.

“We'll do a demonstration for you, Sora,” Roxas said, “of just what Combatants do.”


	4. Chew your salad

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guh, I'm not happy with this chapter, but I've promised myself I wouldn't spend too much time despairing over a fanfic I am writing for fun. (Otherwise I'd just keep editing forever.)
> 
> Also good news: I've decided to try to update weekly, on Wednesdays or Thursdays. We'll see how it goes.

“Just tell me if it'll interfere with Relic.”

Leon was perched on the heavy-duty metal table in the centre of Lab 2-A. It was the smallest among the laboratories they had gotten into working condition, just a room with three consoles, the table, a sterile chamber and a couple of cabinets used to store equipment. Currently, it was dark, illuminated only by the one active console, and the fan in the ventilation duct was wheezing pathetically, creating the sort of atmosphere appropriate for a place where mad science was happening.

The other advantage of Lab 2-A, and the reason Demyx had proclaimed it his, was its convenient location – the lab was separated from the rest of the research wing by a long corridor with doors that didn't even open.

“That's...” Demyx, seated at one of the internal system consoles, floundered for a moment, waving one arm uselessly. The other he kept close to his body, the bluish pill Leon had brought held carefully between thumb and index finger. “It's not that easy! The treatment itself is complicated enough – you realise we aren't sure how it works exactly, yeah? I know you know this. And this pill! I mean, it could be anything--”

“I'm guessing it's some sort of performance enhancer--”

“Right, but that's just a guess, and even if you're right, who knows what it's made of, it could be anything, I tell you, could be as impossible to figure out as Relic!”

“But Cloud comes from the same place as--”

“Yeah, so what? That doesn't automatically mean this pill has anything to do with the military. Could be a drug, could be his fucking hormone therapy. We. Don't. Know.”

Leon pinched the bridge of his nose. He should have gone to someone else with this. Demyx was easy to intimidate into compliance, but also _nice_ and unwilling to risk causing harm, even to a stranger.

Leon had no time for this. The _human race_ didn't have time for this. “How long until you can give me an answer?”

“Haven't you been listening to my angry tirade? I don't know!”

Leon stood, hiding his amusement at the way his sudden movement made Demyx jump, and headed for the door. “Fine. Keep working on it. If you have nothing for me by morning, I'll risk the treatment. Cloud is useless to me without Relic, anyway.”

“You could kill him!” Demyx yelled after him. “Damn it, Leon, just wait a bit, I'll get you the results, just--”

Leon slid two fingers across the door's panel. “I do intend to wait, as I've said.” The door slid open, and Leon stepped out of the lab.

“That's not nearly enough time--”

“Whatever. Just get to it, Demyx. Anything you find will be of use, even if you find it too late.”

Demyx had not time to reply before the door slid shut.

Leon slumped against, allowing himself a moment of weakness. He didn't enjoy being ruthless, especially when emotional people yelled at him for it. But he was hardly going to let what was left of his conscience stop him now. He'd atone for it, if the chance to do so ever came his way.

***

Roxas and Axel's excitement was contagious, and Sora found himself fidgeting in place and inhaling his food with inadvisable speed. It was a bit of shame, because the food was good, the best he'd had in weeks. But Sora had priorities.

Riku whacked him upside the head. “Chew, idiot, or you'll puke it right back out.”

Mouth too full to speak, Sora settled for a “nuh-uh” and an emphatic shake of the head. Riku's eyebrow twitched, but Sora wasn't afraid of angering him. He wasn't sure why. Riku had been nothing but pleasant so far, yes, but their acquaintance amounted to about an hour. Maybe it had something to do with Riku's mild colouring. He had pale skin and pale hair, and in the strange lighting of the cafeteria, his eyes appeared grey. Pretty, though, Sora decided.

Riku grabbed his wrist, causing salad to spill from Sora's fork. “Chew, I said.”

Sora opened his mouth to protest, but Axel beat him to it.

“Riku's right, you know. If you hurl, you'll have to clean up after yourself.”

“But I want to see your demonstration.” Sora knew he was whining. It didn't bother him any.

Roxas unhooked his teeth from where he'd bitten into an apple and chuckled. “We can't give you one at night, Sora. You wouldn't see very much.”

Sora deflated. “Oh.”

“Besides, you're not exactly dressed for the occasion,” Riku said.

Sora frowned and looked down at himself. He was still wearing the shapeless trousers and t-shirt he had woken up in. No shoes, no underwear. That thought made him feel exposed, especially compared to the others. Riku was also wearing a t-shirt, and a tight one at that, but he had baggy trousers and boots. Axel and Roxas were dressed in almost identical sets of boots, fitting trousers and hooded coats.

“Sora, did you drop something?” Roxas asked.

Sora laughed sheepishly and emerged from under the table, where he had ducked to look at Roxas and Axel's footwear. “Sorry. Uh, are you wearing uniforms of some kind?”

Axel burst out laughing. Roxas just blinked and swallowed a bite of his apple before answering. “Yeah. We've just returned from an assignment.”

“Really?” Riku leaned over the table, half-rising in his seat. “How did it go?”

“Eh, you know.” Axel made a circular motion with his hand, his chuckles dying down. “It was an easy one, we didn't get much exercise. Just... It was pointless.”

“Why?”

Both Axel and Roxas glanced at Sora. Sora frowned back at them. After a moment of silence, Roxas shrugged. “We came back empty handed.”

“I think our intel was messed up,” Axel added. “Stuff wasn't where we expected it to be, you know how it is.”

“I see.” Riku didn't seem surprised by this at all, but he slumped back into his seat and bit into his sandwich viciously.

Sora watched him chew for a while, his curiosity battling with his tact. Then he decided he didn't have much tact on his best days, which this day wasn't, and asked, “what are you talking about?” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Axel and Roxas exchange another glance.

“Work,” said Riku, with finality that Sora proceeded to ignore.

“What kind of work?”

“The kind you're not supposed to know about just yet.”

“Oh.” Sora pushed the salad around with his fork. His stomach was starting to feel uncomfortably full.

“You have a lot of questions, we get it,” Axel said, “but you'll just have to be patient for a while. Enjoy your ignorance. Trust me, you'll miss it.”

Sora pursed his lips, but decided not to argue. He was completely in the dark, after all. The only thing he knew was that he owed these people – or at least Leon and Yuffie – for saving his and Cloud's lives. They couldn't be bad if they offered him food and a safe place to stay, and Sora didn't want to act ungrateful.

He smiled. “Okay. I'll stop asking if you stop waving scraps of information at me.”

“Aw, it's not that we don't want to answer your questions,” Axel said. “It's all about the timing, see. And it's for your own good, I promise.”

Sora shrugged. “Hey, you don't need to explain yourself. I could be out there bashing aliens with a pipe rather than here, eating real food and finally being able to talk to someone.”

Axel gave Sora a strange look, and Roxas smiled slightly.

Riku stole a cherry tomato from Sora's plate. “Except you're not eating the real food.”

“I guess you were right about the chewing,” Sora said, patting his belly.

Riku froze. “Uh. You're not gonna puke, are you?”

“No.” Sora laughed as Riku visibly relaxed. “I just need to take it easy.”

“Good. I'm not really hungry, either.” Riku pushed himself to his feet and stepped over the bench. “Come on, I'll show you to your room.”

Sora looked down at his tray. “Shouldn't we...?”

“We'll take care of it, since you've been nice enough to bring ours over,” Axel said.

“Thanks.”

“No problem. Nice to have you with us, Sora.”

Roxas nodded vigorously in agreement. “What he said. We'll see you tomorrow, yeah?”

Sora beamed. “Of course. You've promised me a thing.”

Axel and Roxas laughed, waving goodbye. Sora followed Riku out the door.

Riku led him through a maze of dimly-lit corridors. When they finally came to a stop, Sora had no idea whether they had come up or down, or in which general direction the cafeteria was. Riku put his hand to a glass panel in the wall, and the door before them slid open to reveal a small room. There was barely enough space for a bed, a small table, and a narrow wardrobe.

Riku walked inside and opened another door. “Here's your bathroom. It has another door leading to the room next to yours, but there's no one in it, so you don't have to worry about it.”

“Okay.” Sora sat on the bed and bounced a little. It wasn't particularly soft, but Sora had been sleeping on cold, hard ground for weeks. He loved this bed already. “Where's your room, Riku? And how do I get from here to... well, anywhere I'm allowed to go, I guess.”

“This building's layout is pretty simple once you get used to it. I'll come and get you in the morning, and then I can give you a bit of a tour.”

“Oh, but--”

“Axel and Roxas will want to get some rest after their assignment. You'll be lucky to see them fi-- to see their demonstration before lunch.”

Sora heaved a disappointed sigh. “Damn. I wish they hadn't made me so curious.”

“I don't know, it's pretty cute.” Riku grinned and ruffled Sora's hair. “There are clothes in the wardrobe, but probably not your size. We'll work on that at some point.”

Sora tilted his head and smiled up at the other boy. “Thanks for helping me out and keeping me company. Really.”

“Nah, it's fine. I've been bored senseless until you showed up.” Riku took his hand away and stuffed it into his pocket. “Get some sleep, okay?”

“Yeah.” Sora didn't want him to leave. He had missed simple human contact so much, and he hadn't even realised it until now. Cloud had been extremely kind, but not very talkative and seemingly uninterested in interacting with Sora beyond what was necessary to keep them both alive. That thought made Sora feel very guilty for forgetting about Cloud until now. “Hey, Riku?”

“Hmm?” Riku paused in the doorway, twisting the upper half of his body to look at Sora.

“Is Cloud going to be all right?”

Riku shrugged. “I don't see why he wouldn't be. He was torn up pretty bad, but the reparation tanks work wonders.” He paused, turning to face Sora fully. “I thought you've only just met him?”

“Yeah, but he saved my life, you know? And... If he hadn't, he probably wouldn't have gotten into that fight with the aliens – he wouldn't be injured if not for--”

“Hey, stop it.” Riku was in front of Sora in two strides, laying his hands on Sora's shoulders. “He did it for whatever reason without being forced, right?”

“Yes.”

“So, you shouldn't blame yourself for his decision. Just say thank you when he wakes up. I'm sure he won't hold a grudge.”

“Yeah,” Sora breathed, then nodded for good measure. “You're right. Thank you.”

Riku patted Sora's shoulders before standing. “No problem. I've gone through what you're going through, I know how confused you are right now.”

“Really? Will you tell me about it?”

Riku smiled. “Sure. Some other time, though. Go to sleep.” He pushed at Sora's chest playfully, and Sora went with it, sprawling on the bed.

“All right, all right, I'm sleeping.” He threw an arm over his eyes to demonstrate.

Riku laughed as he walked out of the room. “I hope you have peaceful dreams,” he said quietly. Then the door slid shut.

***

Leon wished he didn't have to wake Cloud up for this. The man wouldn't be able to put up any resistance, what with being submerged in restorative liquid and wearing a mask over most of his face. He'd be able to hear Leon, though, so Leon was going to give Cloud an explanation.

He slid the control panel open and initiated a temporary awakening. Leon only had to wait two minutes before Cloud's eyes blinked open. Then blinked some more, no doubt irritated by the liquid.

“Don't try to move,” Leon said. He didn't actually need to speak out loud, Cloud wasn't hearing his voice, but he supposed it might be less confusing for the man if he saw Leon's lips form the words. “You're safe, and undergoing physical reparation. You're scheduled to leave the tank in six days.”

Cloud's eyes settled on Leon's own. There was a weak frown on his face, his muscles lax thanks to the numbing properties of the liquid. Leon held his gaze and continued.

“I've woken you up to inform you that I'm about to give you treatment that will enhance your performance in combat. I don't need your consent, but I thought you should know. The treatment might kill you. If so, these are your last conscious moments.”

Cloud blinked slowly, his frown etching itself deeper into his features.

“I hope that is not the case, because you are a fantastic fighter and you could make a great contribution to our cause.”

The frown lessened a bit at that, but Cloud's blue-green eyes narrowed. Leon was almost sure the subtle glow in them wasn't just his imagination.

“If all goes well, I'll wake you up again in thirty four hours. And I'll explain some things.” Leon reached for the control panel again and initiated sleep state. “That's all I wanted to say.” He hesitated. “It was a pleasure to watch you fight.”

He watched as Cloud's eyelids fluttered, the other man obviously fighting to stay conscious. Leon continued to watch for long minutes after Cloud lost to the chemicals being pumped into his bloodstream. Eventually he shook himself off, grabbed a small case from a nearby table, and extracted a pen-shaped container. Leon steeled himself, uncapped it, and slotted it into an opening in the panel.

He heard footsteps, then the door slamming open. He ignored it and pulled out the empty container before entering the code initiating the treatment and sliding the control panel shut.

“I have... results...” Demyx panted.

“Too late.” Leon closed the container and put it back in its case, then turned and watched Demyx sit down, cross-legged, right there on the floor. “I've started the procedure. Keep your fingers crossed, I suppose.”

“Fuck, Leon, what is wrong with you!” Demyx was so red in the face Leon worried he might faint. And then he'd have to carry the idiot to the infirmary. “It could kill him!”

Not in a thousand years would Leon admit to the spike of worry that went through him at those words. “Yeah? What have you found?”

“Not much, but I guess there's no point in stalling now,” Demyx snapped. “Ugh, you're going to get it if you've just wasted a whole dose of Relic.”

“What have you found, Demyx?”

“Nothing useful. The pill's composition is mostly stuff I've never seen before.”

Which meant they wouldn't find out a thing until Cloud woke up, and even then they were unlikely to gather proper data. Leon nodded, satisfied. His decision had been the right one to make. “Thank you, Demyx. I'd appreciate it if you continued working on it as a side project.”

Demyx grimaced and ran a shaky hand through his hair, messing up his already somewhat wilted mullet. “Xemnas is going to kill me if he finds out.”

“So be discreet.”

“I know, damn it, it's not that easy.” Demyx slumped, resting his elbows on his knees. He smoothed out his features somewhat, but seemed unable to relax his jaw. “Are you done with your examination?”

“Almost.”

“Zexion is in charge of it, right?”

“Yes.” Leon wondered, sometimes, where the line between genius and stupidity lay. He suspected Demyx had found it and was only barely balancing on it. “You knew that.”

Demyx grumbled something at the floor. He looked back up at Leon. “How is he?”

“Zexion?”

“No, the king of the pink pandas. Of course I meant Zexion!”

Leon blinked, then shrugged. “He's acting exactly the same way he always does.”

“Of course he is, he's Zexion.”

“Why did you ask, if you know the answer?”

“Ugh!” Demyx threw his hands up in frustration. “I can't deal with you!”

“The sentiment is mutual.”

“Look, just – he didn't seem, like, sad or anything? Angry, maybe?”

Leon found himself actually thinking about it, much to his displeasure. “No, I haven't noticed anything amiss.” He took in Demyx's miserable expression and sighed. “You should ask someone else. Yuffie, maybe. She pays attention to these things.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Just don't mention me when you do.”

Demyx blinked at him, curiosity wiping away his dark mood. “Are you two fighting?”

“In a sense.”

“Over what?”

“Go entertain yourself somewhere else, Demyx.”

Demyx huffed. “Fine. See if I help you out the next time you come to me asking for favours.” He stood, turned on his heel and slammed the door shut behind himself.

Leon sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He walked up to Cloud's tank and stared at the man's slack features. “Don't disappoint me now,” Leon murmured, pressing one hand to the glass. Then he went to look for something to occupy himself with for the next thirty hours.


	5. Outside

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To all the wonderful people who have left kudos or a comment on this story, or added it to their bookmarks: THANK YOU. SO MUCH.
> 
> It means a lot to me, and makes me super excited about writing. This is the first time I've gotten real feedback on a story, and I love it. I love writing not only for myself, but also for others' enjoyment. Thank you all, and Happy Holidays!

Riku came to get Sora in the morning like he'd promised. He also brought clothes that were closer to Sora's size than what could be found in Sora's wardrobe, and a pair of shoes. It was more of the nondescript stuff Sora had been given before, but at least he could walk without worrying that his trousers would slide down his ass any second. And even if that happened, he had underwear now.

They went to get breakfast, and Riku taught Sora how to use the digital menu in the cafeteria. Sora managed to order two surprisingly tasty, swamp green milkshakes.

“Why is this place so empty?” Sora asked as they sat down to eat.

“Most of the Combatants and Observers are out on assignments, and the research team keep crazy hours. They're kind of an antisocial bunch, too. It's no wonder Axel left.”

“Oh.” Sora chewed on his pancakes thoughtfully. “What about Yuffie? Is she here?”

“I have no idea. She didn't get suspended like Leon, so I don't see why she wouldn't be out on assignment.”

“Sounds like you take your work really seriously here.”

Riku gave Sora a strange look. “Yeah, sure. The end of the human race, right? No pressure.”

“Oh.” Sora felt like an idiot. “Um. So you are trying to like, prevent it?”

“Ye-eah,” Riku said, drawing out the word. “Kinda. I'll explain when the time comes. Now eat your pancakes, so we can start the tour.”

Sora did as asked, and soon they were walking through the endless maze of dark corridors. Riku kept pointing out doors and waving at whole sections, but Sora couldn't wrap his head around any of it. He kind of wanted to grab onto the back of Riku's shirt, so that he wouldn't get lost.

Eventually, they went up a wide, sloping corridor and emerged into a large room. Large enough to fit a battleship, Sora thought. Or a couple of houses. The ceiling was at least three floors up, and there were walkways on some sections of the walls. Sora couldn't spot a single window, but there were stripes of dim, orange lights in the floor and the ceiling.

“Whoa, where are we?”

“I don't really have a good response to that question.” Riku spread his arms in a shrug. “We call this the entrance hall, but no one has a clue what it was used for.”

“Um, what about the people who've built it?”

“They are long gone. Ansem, the guy who runs this place, says he doesn't know anything, either, but I think he's lying. Not that I have any way of getting him to talk.” Riku shook off his frown and grabbed Sora's wrist, pulling him along the wall. “Come on, Axel and Roxas said they'd be waiting outside.”

Riku came to a stop in front of a section of the wall that looked like a very complicated device. There were pipes and pumps and panels of various shapes and sizes. Riku slid one to the side and made a few swipes at the touchscreen there. The wall shifted and split, sliding away in four directions at once. Sora yelped in surprise as light assaulted his eyes. Riku laughed and pulled him outside.

Sora blinked desperately, trying to get his eyes to work properly. The first thing he noticed was how bright it was – not a single cloud in the sky, and it must have been nearing noon. Sora felt the difference in texture under his flimsy shoes and looked down, then around himself. Reddish dirt stretching as far as he could see. Not a tree in sight, just some shrubs and patches of dry grass. Rolling hills that could be dunes, though Sora hoped they weren't. He didn't much like the idea of being stuck in the middle of the desert. But something else worried him even more.

“Oh, shit. What happened to the city? Did it get bombed or something?”

Riku laughed. Once he recovered, he used another touchscreen to close the door. “No, Sora, the city's where you left it, it didn't get bombed. The Dark Ones don't really use that kind of technology.”

Sora had no idea what amused Riku so much, but he felt offended nonetheless. “Yeah, they do. They had those weird, giant bulbs when they first came.”

“Those were sleeping pods, for some of their more aggressive types. It's a side effect that the liquid in them is kind of corrosive.”

“Huh. You know a lot about the aliens.”

Riku grinned, but it didn't reach his eyes. He started walking. “You would, too, if you'd gone through what I've gone through.”

Sora wanted to ask. He really, really did. But he also wasn't stupid enough to pry. He'd known Riku for less than a day. They weren't friends. Yet. Sora wasn't going to ruin his chances of befriending Riku, so he said nothing, and turned his hand in Riku's grasp to mirror Riku's hold on his wrist. Riku glanced at him over his shoulder, but didn't comment.

Sora smiled to himself and turned his attention to the building they'd just emerged from. It was huge, though not very tall, four floors at most, and more or less the same colour as the dirt. Camouflaged, Sora supposed. It made sense. They rounded the corner and entered a patch of shadow. There were a few trees in sight, and some more shrubbery, surrounding a truly pathetic stream.

“Oh wow,” said Sora. “This doesn't look like enough water for a huge building potentially full of people.”

“Well, the building is mostly empty. And don't worry, we're getting supplies from elsewhere.”

“But there are no roads, right? 'Cause we're hiding.”

Riku grinned over his shoulder. “Right. Come on, there's actually a cave with a spring--”

“Hey, what's this?” a familiar voice called. A second later, Axel's hair emerged from behind a tree, followed by the rest of the man, and Roxas. “Holding hands, are we?”

Sora looked down at his and Riku's clasped hands. He gave them a swing for good measure and beamed at the newcomers. “Yep. Hi, Axel. Hi, Roxas.”

“Hey, Sora.”

Axel chuckled. “I'm starting to like you, kid.”

Sora scowled and walked up to Axel, pulling Riku along. He jabbed a finger at Axel's chest. “Don't call me a kid. We've talked about this.”

“But you are one,” Axel whined, as if Sora was asking him to do something particularly unreasonable.

Sora released Riku's wrist in order to cross his arms. He huffed for good measure. “I am not. I'm practically a legal adult, my birthday is, uh.” He frowned, realising he'd lost track of time during his lone trek through the ruined city. “Well, probably very soon. Anyway, I've bashed enough aliens to death to deserve a little bit of respect.” He demonstrated the little part by holding his thumb and index finger close together, just short of touching.

Axel's demeanour changed from teasing to surprised. “Wait, really? You killed a Dark One?”

Sora glanced at the other two, noting that their surprise mirrored Axel's. He rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously. “Well, yeah. I mean, I'm nothing like Cloud, he took on a whole group of them. But I helped, and before that I killed a few.”

“Whoa,” Roxas said. “You're really something.”

“Uh, thanks? It wasn't very impressive. I'm not sure how I managed it, I was just trying not to die. And it's not _that_ difficult. You just need to know where to jam the sharp end of your weapon of choice.”

Sora felt a hand on his shoulder, and turned to look at a smiling Riku. “It's very impressive. Not a lot of people can survive a single encounter with a Dark One.”

“But... I mean, I'm sure you can. And Leon didn't even have to touch that alien to kill it.”

“Leon really shouldn't have done that, actually,” Axel said, frowning. “But I suppose I'm glad he did. Sounds like you and that Cloud guy will be valuable additions to our ranks.”

“That's Sora's decision,” Riku said sharply. “And it would be perfectly all right if he chose to never fight a Dark One again.”

Sora's gaze shifted between the two of them. He had no idea what was going on.

Roxas laughed at his obvious distress. “Don't worry, Sora. You'll understand quite a bit once Axel and I are done with our demonstration.”

Sora lit up immediately. “Cool! When can you start?” Before Roxas could answer, though, Riku's words registered fully in Sora's mind. “Wait, wait. Riku? Does Cloud get to make that decision, too?”

Riku bit his lip, gaze shifting to the side. “I don't know. Leon seemed pretty adamant about making Cloud his partner.”

Axel's eyebrows rose. “Yeah? Your Cloud must be good if Leon's willing to wait another – how long will it take, three weeks?”

Riku nodded. “Or longer, if Cloud hesitates about the treatment.”

“The what?” Sora asked.

“All right!” Roxas spread his arms. “I think it's time we start the show. Axel?”

“Hell yeah!” He turned to Sora and Riku. “You can sit on that rock behind you.”

Sora had questions, but Riku pulled him to the spot Axel had indicated. They sat and watched as Axel and Roxas walked about twenty metres away. They were suddenly walking with a different quality to their movements. Fluid, controlled, and something else Sora couldn't put his finger on. It could be just his own excitement making him see things.

Roxas and Axel squared off, a small distance apart, arms loose at their sides. Then something flickered by Axel's fingers, like the air over hot asphalt. Flames exploded over his hands and Sora yelped. He started to rise, but Riku held him down by the back of his shirt.

“Relax, just watch.”

Sora stared as the flames turned into strange, circular, spiked weapons. His gaze shifted to Roxas just in time to see black tendrils spilling from one of his hands, and a burst of light in the other. They formed two blades of identical length, one black and one very, very bright.

“What the fuck,” Sora managed.

He watched, captivated, as Axel and Roxas circled each other on light feet, weapons raised. Then Axel threw one of his weapons in a wide arch. Roxas deflected it, letting it fly past him. It didn't get very far and disintegrated in mid-air, only to reappear in Axel's hand. Just in time, too – Roxas lunged, and Axel brought both of his arms up in a block. Flames burst in a halo around the clashing blades.

“Oh, this is nothing. They're just warming up,” said Riku. Sora could hear the smirk in his voice, but he refused to look away from Axel and Roxas to confirm his suspicion.

They were exchanging quick blows that barely seemed to connect, though the weapons made strange, screeching noises when they touched. It looked like Roxas was winning, forcing Axel to walk backwards in circles, not giving him enough room to take advantage of his longer reach.

“What are those things Axel is using?”

“Chakrams. They look pretty cool, right?”

Axel managed to get Roxas' blades tangled in the spikes of his chakrams a couple of times, forcing Roxas to jerk the blade free and back off to regroup. It didn't help much, as Roxas was ready to attack a split second later each time, but it gave Axel some control over the fight.

“Yeah.”

“They're not very effective at close range, though. That's why Axel and Roxas make such a good team. Roxas is fast, hits hard, and isn't afraid to get close to his opponent. Axel throws his chakrams around and deals amazing damage with his fire.”

“Wow.” Sora watches Roxas deliver a flurry of lightning-quick slashes. Axel could only block and back away. Each time Roxas struck with the black blade, tendrils of dark smoke erupted around the clash. The bright blade flashed blindingly whenever it connected. “How are they doing this? Do they go and fight the aliens like this?”

“Ancient technology implants, and yes, they do.”

“What?” Sora tore his gaze away from the sparring session to give Riku a wide-eyed stare. “Implants? What?”

Riku ran a hand through his hair, managing to do so without pushing a single strand out of place. “Hmm, well. They are kind of like microscopic robo-bugs. We call them Relic.”

“What?!” Sora snapped his head around to look at Axel and Roxas again. “You mean they have mechanical bugs inside them?”

“Yes,” Riku said calmly. “So do I. And Leon, and Yuffie. Every Observer and Combatant has been given the treatment.”

That was so weird. But if it gave them this much power – power they desperately needed – then it couldn't be a bad thing, Sora thought. He watched as Roxas and Axel danced around each other, spilling flames, smoke, and light. Their movements were coordinated and tightly controlled. It was obvious that they were exerting a lot of effort to keep from hurting each other. When Axel was a second too slow in getting his arm out of the way, Roxas' blade dissolved into smoke and passed through without harming Axel. The flame bursts were always directed outwards, too.

“This is so awesome,” Sora said. Riku was quiet, so Sora glanced at him just long enough to take in his surprised expression. “What?”

“Most people get scared first, and only then commence with the excitement.”

Sora shrugged. “I guess I'm not most people. Wow, look at them go.”

Roxas executed a sideways twist followed by a roll to avoid a chakram to the gut, and brought his blades up in front of his chest and back, blocking both Axel's close-range attack and the returning chakram. Sora had never witnessed anything more impressive than this.

“It's not all that great, you know,” Riku murmured. “Many Combatants still get killed.”

Sora blinked. “Well, that's to be expected if they're fighting the aliens.”

“Yeah, but it's not just the Dark Ones that are a danger to them. To us.”

Sora turned to face Riku once more, frowning. “What else could be a problem? People with guns?”

Riku chuckled quietly. “That, too, though we don't encounter many. But the biggest risk is Relic itself.”

“What do you mean?” Riku's eyes were obscured by his bangs, so Sora couldn't read his expression.

“I mean that, if you're not careful, if you channel too much power or keep fighting for too long, the microscopic bugs eat you from the inside out.”


	6. Relic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year!
> 
> I meant to post this chapter earlier, but editing took longer than expected. I'm having trouble keeping everything in the right order, since I have a buffer of about seven chapters and every time I go back for editing, I lose track of what I've already spilled and what still needs an explanation. But having the option of adjusting earlier chapters according to what happens later is totally worth it.

Sora's eyes were as round as Axel's chakrams.

Riku laughed. “Don't look so scared. It's not like we fall over dead left and right because we've been using our abilities a second too long. We get some warning, and sometimes Relic will shut us down before we cross the line.”

“What.”

“So if there's ever a fight and I suddenly fall over, I'm as likely to be unconscious as I am to be dead.” Riku's tilted his head in consideration. “Axel was part of the research team for quite a while, he can explain.”

“Yeah, no,” said the redhead. “I used to do the hands-on stuff. I cut people up.”

Riku turned to face him and Roxas as they approached. “Done already?”

“ _Well._ We noticed that you weren't exactly paying attention.”

“Gah! Sorry.” Sora was the picture of remorse. “You went to all this effort for my sake and I just went and got distracted.”

Axel blinked down at him, then barked a short laugh. “Nah, it's fine. We'd be doing this anyway, we spar every day.”

“You just looked really horrified,” Roxas added.

Axel nodded in agreement. “Riku told you about Relic, huh?”

“Yeah.” Sora squirmed on the rock and crossed his arms. “It sounds pretty awful. And you need to get cut up for it?”

“Huh? Oh, no, no.” Axel waved his hands. Riku and Roxas ducked. “That was before they figured out how to do it through reparation tanks. Now it's painless. Well. Mostly painless.”

“It's the only reason why this chickenshit went through with it,” Roxas said, jabbing Axel's arm with a finger.

“Hey! It's not like you and Riku are any better.”

“There are actually very few of those who'd gone through the original treatment left,” Riku said. “It was much less stable back them, and people were either dying or going insane.”

“Wow.” Sora looked at him with huge eyes. “That's amazing. I mean, they were risking so much to fight back against the aliens, right?”

Riku shook his head with a chuckle. Sora was definitely a curious one. “That's one way to look at it. Actually, Axel and Roxas aren't that much better off.”

“What do you mean?”

“We're not talking about that,” Axel said. He was smiling, but the look in his eyes held a clear warning.

Riku inclined his head. He wasn't out to cause any friction. “Suffice it to say that they've been Combatans for a long time, and that they started out when the new procedure wasn't entirely stable.”

Sora nodded slowly. “What about you?”

“Oh, I've only been here for... three weeks? Yeah, that's about right. The treatment takes a while to get used to, so I mostly just train and go through medical tests.” Not that Riku minded. He wasn't too eager to go out and fight just yet. Not that he could, without a partner. But his job was important, too. “And I'm an Observer since – four days ago. I've been out exactly twice.”

He supposed Yuffie was free now that Leon didn't want her, but Riku didn't get along with her that well. He'd just have to wait and see how Sora turned out. If Sora decided to accept the treatment, of course.

“So you can do what Axel and Roxas can?” Sora asked. “With the fire and the disappearing weapons?”

Riku smirked. “Not quite. I have my own way of doing things.”

“Come on Riku. Show Sora what you can do.” Axel grinned, swinging one chakram by his side idly.

Riku wasn't all too thrilled at the idea. “But what I do isn't very flashy.”

“Don't be a wuss,” Roxas said with a challenging smile, brandishing his two blades. “Or are you worried I'll kick your ass so bad you'll be too ashamed to ever look Sora in the eye again?”

Riku knew perfectly well that Roxas was baiting him, but really, there was no harm in rising up to the challenge. He stood with an exaggerated sigh and dusted off his trousers. “You're so desperate for a beating, aren't you?”

Roxas' smile grew teeth and he just shifted his blades wordlessly. Riku shot a reassuring look at Sora over his shoulder, but the boy seemed eager rather than worried. He gave Riku a thumbs up.

Axel sat down on the rock next to Sora and threw an arm over his shoulders. “I'll stay here and explain it all to you, new kid. Riku fighting really is a boring sight without a commentator.”

“I'll decide that for myself,” said Sora.

Riku couldn't back out of the fight if he wanted to after hearing that. He nodded to Roxas and they squared off. Riku arranged himself into his favourite guard, right arm pulled back high, left arm extended in front of him. He'd never told anyone about this, but the gesture helped him visualise his Relic spreading like a cloud around him, from a point under his left palm. His blade came to his hand easily and he gripped it securely, revelling in the familiar weight. It hadn't been long, but his Relic already felt like an old friend to Riku.

Roxas, who more or less knew what Riku's abilities amounted to, apparently decided not to give him time to take in the surroundings properly. He charged, blades held low. Riku could feel Roxas' Relic insinuate itself into his space, making the air thick as molasses.

Riku closed his eyes, blacking out everything except for what was within his Relic's range. Roxas, the expanse of dirt around them, the closest wall of Hollow Bastion, the slight breeze, every nearby shrub – all of it burned like the brightest light across Riku's senses. He was aware of every grain of dirt, of the tiniest shift of Roxas' muscles, his breathing, the weight of his steps. Riku took it all in, and he was ready when Roxas came at him with his customary flair.

*

“Whoa.” Sora watched as Riku brought his blade up to block both of Roxas' and stepped to the side, letting Roxas' momentum carry him a few more steps. Roxas was quick to turn and deliver a series of low slashes, but Riku gave him no ground, parrying every blow.

“Roxas can slow his opponent's movements by thickening the air around them, sort of,” Axel explained. “Plus he's really fast in his own right. So Riku is really the perfect sparring partner for him, because Riku's fighting style is all about economy of effort, you know?”

“I get it,” Sora said, nodding, and he was pretty sure that he did. “But is Riku doing anything?”

“Well, yeah. See his eyes?”

Sora squinted, leaning forward. He gasped when he noticed. “They're closed!”

“Yup. Riku can spread his Relic around him – we call the tiny bugs that, did he say? – and feel out his surroundings. It's like a sixth sense.” Axel whistled as Riku parried a kick followed by a series of rapid slashes. “He's getting really good at it.”

Sora had to grab onto the rock with both hands to stay sitting. This was amazing. Both Riku and Roxas were pulling moves that didn't seem physically possible, and it looked like such great fun. Roxas was definitely smirking, and Riku had an air of satisfaction and challenge about him, like this was his favourite sport. Sora felt like cheering him on, but that would probably be a distraction. He didn't want to make Riku lose.

“Wow,” Sora said. “I wish I could do things like that.”

“We-ell,” Axel drawled. “It's not impossible for you.”

Sora's head swivelled towards him, though tearing his eyes away from the sparring session was not easy. “You mean I could just... get this Relic thing?”

“That's usually what happens to the people we bring here, these days.” Axel nodded. “But. From what I've heard, you aren't supposed to be here.”

“Oh.” Sora's excitement faded. He remembered what Leon had said. It hadn't been that long ago. “That's right. Not that I have any idea where 'here' is, you know.”

“All in good time,” Axel said, patting him on the back with enough force that Sora had to plant his feet on the ground or he'd fall right off the rock.

“Oof. Get away from me, you giant.” Sora laughed, batting Axel's hand away. He turned his eyes back to Riku and Roxas' fight and sighed wistfully. “Oh well. I guess I'll never get to be as cool as you guys.”

“Hey, I said it's doable. All you have to do is pass a bunch of tests.”

“Really?” Sora pursed his lips, but kept watching the fight. It looked to him like Riku should be losing, considering Roxas' relentless assault, but Riku held his ground and pushed back patiently, getting under Roxas' guard with increasing frequency. “Are these tests hard to pass?”

Axel hummed thoughtfully. “I honestly can't say. They've changed the procedure since I got Relic, so I'm not familiar with the tests. You'll have to ask Riku.”

“Oh, okay.”

Axel leaned forward suddenly. “Ooh, look. Roxas just got serious.”

Sora noticed the change as well. Up to this point, he thought Riku was going to win simply by tiring Roxas out. But it seemed like Roxas knew his limits and was going to turn the tables on Riku before he lost steam. Now each of his moves had obvious intent behind it – he wasn't out to knock Riku over, but to confuse him. His blows were lighter and quicker, and he kept backing away when he could have pressed on.

Riku wasn't unaffected. His movements became jerky, and his breathing grew heavier. He yelled something that sounded like a curse when one of Roxas' blades went through his leg, right under the knee.

Sora started to rise, but Axel held him back. “Relax, it just phased through. Hurts kind of a lot, but only for a moment.”

Sora wasn't entirely happy with that, but stayed put. He gasped as Roxas zigzagged across the field towards Riku, blades held low again, and kicking up dust. The air around him glittered with tiny flakes of light.

“What's he doing?”

“Disrupting Riku's Relic,” Axel replied, sounding surprised. “He doesn't need to do it to win. I guess he's just showing off.”

If that was what Roxas was doing, his efforts were wasted. Roxas was so fast Sora was sure he was missing half of Roxas' moves. The glittering effect _was_ rather pretty, though.

Roxas came at Riku from the side with both blades. Riku parried, and barely managed to turn around to meet Roxas' next blow. Roxas delivered three more broad swings before he got enough of an opening to kick Riku in the chest and send him sprawling. Riku grunted loudly, and his blade evaporated from his hand. He opened his eyes to blink up at the sky.

Roxas let go of his blades. They disappeared before they hit the ground, and Roxas gave Riku a hand up. They exchanged quiet words, laughed, and made their way back to where Axel and Sora were sitting.

“Riku! That was amazing!” Sora called, standing a little unsteadily. His body was thrumming with adrenaline, and he couldn't believe the fight was over so quickly. But it had to have been the best thing he'd ever witnessed. “You almost got him.”

“Nah. I didn't really stand a chance. It just looked like I did because Roxas gave himself a handicap.”

Sora blinked. “A handicap?”

Riku plopped onto the ground next to the rock and rolled his neck. “Mhmm. He ignored a few openings to keep the fight going.”

“That's because,” Roxas said, panting, “sparring with you is the best workout.”

“Aw, I'm hurt, Roxas,” Axel said.

“You don't get to complain, lazy ass.”

“It's not my fault that you don't like my fighting style.”

“I like it all right, it's saved my hide like a hundred times.” Roxas punched Axel's arm playfully. “But you suck in close range and that's what I want to work on.”

Axel gasped in outrage. “I do not suck! I'm at the very least decent at it!”

“Sure, sure, whatever you want to tell yourself.” Roxas went over to the stream to splash his face.

Riku looked like he thought that was a great idea, but was too lazy to get up and actually do it. Sora laughed, and shook his head when Riku gave him a questioning look.

“So,” Axel said. “Sora wants to have Relic, too.”

Sora's eyes widened. “Um.”

“Hey, that's awesome.” Riku grinned wide. “You'll have no trouble with the tests if you can kill a Dark One all by yourself.”

“Oh.” Sora felt heat rising to his cheeks, which was enough of a surprise that it killed most of his embarrassment. He laughed. “That's... I hope you're right. Your fight was the coolest thing I've ever seen. I want to try something like that, too.”

Riku beamed, but Axel made a disgruntled face. “Hey, you mean _my_ fight wasn't as impressive?”

“Um.” Sora scratched the back of his head and smiled innocently. “Well. I think I'm more interested in close range combat. Sorry.”

“Ha!” Roxas exclaimed. He returned from the stream and sat cross-legged with his back to the rock. “I told you my methods are superior. I guess that's another point for me.”

Axel pushed him with a booted foot until Roxas had to catch himself on one arm. “No fair. Why does no one appreciate me?”

“Sora, has Axel explained Relic to you?” Riku asked.

Sora thought about it. He nodded. “Yeah. But I still have questions.”

“Okay, shoot,” Axel said.

“Right, so... That thing Leon did – the light and the cold...?”

“Which he really shouldn't have done,” Axel said, frowning. All of them seemed so unhappy about Leon breaking a rule. “But yeah, his Relic is temperature-based, I think?”

“I'm pretty sure that's it,” Roxas confirmed. “He never spars with us, so we don't really know much.”

“Why is what he did such a bad thing?” Sora felt that saving him and Cloud should have been worth a bit of risk. It hurt a little to hear Axel say that Sora's rescue shouldn't have happened.

“It's just a rule we have,” said Riku, playing with a small patch of dry grass. “Combatants always work in teams of two – used to be three, but that's rare nowadays – and those without a partner are called Observers. We're not supposed to engage the Dark Ones under any circumstances.”

“But...” Sora waved an arm, trying to indicate his general bafflement. “He took that alien down like it was nothing.”

“The Dark Ones aren't the problem. Leon could take on an officer-type, easy. It's Relic.” Riku turned narrowed eyes to Axel. “You didn't tell him?”

“The whole killing yourself using your magic thing?” Sora asked. “You told me about that, Riku.”

“But I meant to explain further,” Axel said. “See, the only way we know how to... keep Relic in check is to work with a bonded partner and have their Relic balance out yours.”

Roxas shook his head. “It's not as simple as he makes it sound. Bonding itself takes a lot of time, and it's very important to trust your partner, or else you might as well not bother getting one.”

“Right.” Sora frowned, trying to understand. “How does it work, exactly?”

“No one knows.” Riku chuckled at Sora's disbelieving look. “Well, we know some things. Bonding happens when you spend a lot of time together and consciously tune into each other's Relic. The Relic will then gain the ability to, hmm, absorb stress from each other.”

“Yeah, basically,” Roxas confirmed.

Sora had no idea what to think. It all sounded incomprehensible to him. “Wow, Riku, you sure know a lot. And you've been here three weeks?”

“I'm not the best authority on this subject, believe me.”

Sora blinked at him in surprise. “Does that mean you don't have a partner yet?”

“Yeah? That's why I'm an Observer and not a Combatant, idiot.”

Sora kicked him in the knee lightly, but otherwise decided to let the insult slide. “Hmm. Why don't you get one, then?”

Riku shrugged. “No one was really available until yesterday, when Leon announced he didn't want to bond with Yuffie after all.”

“Oh. So you'll bond with her now?”

“I don't know.” Riku picked at the grass again, watching as the dry leaves crumbled under his touch. “I don't think we're a good match. Yuffie's great, but our fighting styles don't balance out and... she's just so pushy.”

Roxas smirked. “Are you worried that she'd boss you around?”

“No,” Riku said, scowling. “I mean that I probably wouldn't be able to work well with her.”

“How about if I got the treatment?” Sora asked, mostly joking.

Riku grinned up at him. “Oh, I don't know. We've met yesterday, Sora, it's a little early for such a commitment.”

“What? That wasn't a marriage proposal, you know.”

“Same difference,” Axel said, waving a hand. “Once you're bonded, you're basically stuck together forever.”

Sora boggled. “What? What do you mean, forever?”

“Well,” Axel shot Roxas a glance, then tilted his head back to look at the sky. “'Forever' is not the best term, I guess. Our life expectancy isn't that great, what with the war.”

“War?” Sora was feeling more and more lost with every passing minute. “You mean with the aliens?”

“Yeah. Combatants go out and die, just like that. Roxas and I have been lucky.”

“How long have you been doing this?”

Axel closed his eyes and frowned in thought. “Uh, is it two years already?”

“In a few days, actually,” Roxas said. “We're one of the oldest surviving teams.”

“Wow.” Sora stared at the ground. Two years was a long time to survive?

“That's why you should think long and hard before you decide to get the treatment,” Riku said. “The war, it's... not going very well.”

Sora raised his eyebrows at him. “I know. I'm from Midgar, remember? Nothing's left of the city, as far as I know.”

Riku looked uncomfortable, but he nodded. “Right. There's a little more to it than that, but – one thing at a time.”

“What Riku is trying to say,” Roxas interjected, “is that we're losing the war, and we don't have that many doses of Relic left. We can't reproduce it, because all documentation has been lost.”

“The research guys are working on it,” Axel said. “But they aren't very optimistic.”

“Yeah.” Riku wiped his hand on his trouser leg, then combed his fingers though his bangs. “So, we might be wasting our time.”

“We're not,” Roxas said firmly. “We're the only ones making any kind of difference. It's not pointless.”

Riku blinked at him, looking sheepish. “Sorry. I guess it's just hard for me to be optimistic. I haven't contributed very much so far.”

“Yes you have.” Axel kicked Riku's foot. “You're a somewhat competent Observer.”

Riku laughed and got to his feet, dusting himself off. “Thanks, I feel so much better now. But speaking of which, we need to go to the debriefing.”

“It's that time already?” Roxas pulled out what looked like a particularly flat cell phone from his pocket and tapped it a few times. “Huh. Okay, let's go.” He looked at Sora. “Want me to take you to your room?”

Sora thought about it. His room was tiny and boring, and the endless corridors beyond it were hardly any better. “Nah. Can I stay here?”

The other three exchanged hesitant glances. “If you promise not to go far from here and lose sight of the door,” Riku said eventually.

“Does he even know how to open it?” Axel asked.

“He can figure it out.”

Sora was a little warmed by Riku's apparent confidence in his ability to take care of himself. Even if it was rude of them to talk about him as if Sora weren't there. “I'll be good, I promise.”

“We can check on him through the surveillance system,” Roxas reasoned. “It's safe here.”

“All right.” Axel shrugged, and started walking, Roxas close at his heels.

Riku put a hand on Sora's shoulder. “Think about what we've told you, but don't rush with making a decision.”

“Okay.” Sora gave him a wide smile. “I'm pretty sure I know what I want to do already, but I'll think about it.”

“Good. I'll see you later today, hopefully.” Riku patted Sora's shoulder, and left.

Sora idled on the rock for a while, doing the promised thinking now to get it out of the way. Once he came to the same conclusion as before, he nodded to himself in satisfaction, and went about exploring the creek, and the shallow cave with the spring. He climbed a tree to get a better look at his surroundings. There was nothing but the building on one side, and rocks, dirt and some shrubs on the other. Boring. But at least Sora knew not to expect any excitement from the outdoors now.

He went to the door and spent almost an hour trying to figure out how to open it. He couldn't read any of the signs that appeared on the control panel, so Sora kept tapping at random buttons, trying to replicate what he'd seen Riku do when they exited the building. When the door finally slid open, he was so surprised he almost didn't manage to slip inside before they closed again.


	7. Leadership

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not happy with this chapter, but school's getting busy so I don't have the time to fix it. Also I really want to get to the part that's not just people talking, haha. (Soon, I promise.)

The briefing was about as boring as Leon had expected it to be. No one seemed to have noticed the missing Relic dose, which Leon was glad for. He didn't want to deal with that mess until he knew whether Cloud would live or not, and had a very solid argument at his side. None of the issues discussed concerned him, though he remained attentive. Leon wasn't sure why he needed to be here at all. It wasn't like he could receive an assignment, and there was precious little for him to do in Hollow Bastion. Unless another evacuation was in order. Leon hoped that wasn't the case, and not only because it would mean that another world was lost to them.

“We have been unable to initiate dialogue,” Saix reported. He was the research team member most loyal to Xemnas, and so he got to sit in on most meetings. “But I uphold my earlier statement. The Dark Ones are perfectly capable of understanding human speech. They must be very intelligent as well, since they have ignored some of our more obvious attempts at prompting a reaction from them.”

Xemnas laid a hand on Saix's shoulder. “I support Saix's claim, this time. The results couldn't be any less vague.”

“Any Observer who's been out on more than three missions would have been able to tell you that, but okay, have your great discovery,” Yuffie said.

“Perhaps,” Ansem allowed, from his seat at the head of the table. “But we had to be absolutely certain. This is an important step towards full understanding of the nature of the Dark Ones.”

“That's fantastic.” Yuffie propped her chin on a hand, grinning. “I am extremely glad to be aware of this bit of useless knowledge--”

“Yuffie, enough.” Leon didn't raise his voice, but he put enough weight into it to let her know she was out of line.

Yuffie huffed and settled back in her chair, crossing her arms. “ _Fine._ ”

Ansem twined his fingers in front of his mouth and fixed Leon with a look. “You are certainly talented at keeping the young ones in line, Leon.”

Leon heard Riku snort at the far end of the table. He was tempted to do the same – what Ansem was really saying, and what everyone no doubt understood, was that Leon would make for a good successor. If only Ansem's position was even remotely enviable.

“Thank you, sir. I take such joy in keeping a leash on squabbling children,” Leon said, tone flat.

He knew very well that Ansem had kept him from becoming a Combatant for so long in hopes of passing on the leadership to Leon. Which was probably smart – there was no one else who could take the role, at least no one who wasn't on the research team, and _they_ weren't allowed any more power – but Leon considered it rather pointless. There would be no need for a leader if all of them were soon going to be dead.

“I'm happy for you,” said Ansem. “Now before we finish, it is time to give out assignments.” Ansem held up a set of files. He handed one to Larxene and Marluxia, one to Axel and Roxas, and one each to Riku and Yuffie. Then two more to Xemnas. “For your and your teams' eyes only.”

“Of course,” Xemnas said.

Leon was surprised that Axel and Roxas received another assignment so soon after returning from their last one. “Are we preparing for evacuation?” he guessed.

Ansem inclined his head. “Yes. I would like you to muster the resident staff and take care of this side of the operation. Here are the estimated numbers.”

Leon opened the file handed to him, scanning through it quickly. The deadline was close, but the number of new arrivals-- “That's not many.” Still too many for Hollow Bastion to accommodate comfortably, but they could manage them in only six or seven stages, even if it was a risk. But it was only a tiny fraction of a world's population.

“It's too late to save any more. According to Roxas and Axel's reports, they're so overrun we won't be able to transport any more with just four teams.”

“We could have grabbed a few on our way back,” Axel muttered.

“Not without risking the outcome of the main operation,” Ansem said calmly.

Leon read further into his file, rubbing two fingers over his mouth. He didn't like this. Four teams out meant defence would be thinly spread, and any number of things could go wrong during an evacuation. “Do I have permission to seal off the research wing and the occupied quarters?”

“Certainly. Just talk to the technicians well in advance.” At Leon's nod, Ansem turned to the rest of the gathered. “Any other questions?”

Four teams out also meant that the operation required a lot of firepower. Leon didn't ask.

“Can't we go back early and join Leon's team?” Yuffie asked.

“No, Yuffie. You and Riku need to stay behind and do your job as Observers.”

“But--”

“Don't, Yuffie,” Leon said, feeling tired all of a sudden.

“No more questions?” When no one said anything, Ansem stood. “Then this meeting is over. I will see you again before you depart.”

Everyone else stood as well. Leon caught Xemnas' eye and made his way over to him and Saix. Xemnas motioned Leon to accompany them as they moved out of the meeting room.

“I need to know who'll be left to defend the base,” Leon said.

Xemnas frowned in thought. “I'm not certain yet, but most likely I will send out Xigbar, Luxord, Zexion an Lexeus.”

Leon had expected as much. He nodded. “Thank you. If you need anything, I'm always on call.” He tapped the tablet in his pocket.

Xemnas ran a hand through his hair. “I don't like this. We're taking a huge risk.”

“I agree. Ansem is either getting sentimental, or desperate.”

Saix snorted. “I say it's both.”

“Perhaps you should reconsider his offer.” Xemnas' eyes were sharp, though his expression remained neutral.

Leon liked Xemnas enough to offer a shrug. “I don't think it's a good idea, unless you want your leader to constantly be out there, seconds away from probable death.”

“I wouldn't mind,” Saix said.

“Your apparent lack of concern about the end of the world as we know it worries me,” Leon told him.

“Leon,” Riku called after them.

Xemnas and Saix murmured their goodbyes and left, heading in the direction of the research section. Leon turned around to watch Riku, Axel and Roxas approach. Roxas was tapping at his tablet with an intent expression on his face.

“Leon, I need a favour,” Riku said.

“I'm listening.” Leon was curious. He hadn't really had a chance to interact with Riku so far, and he liked to have at least base knowledge about the people he worked with.

“Remember Sora? He's--”

“Made it inside,” Roxas said, not looking up from his tablet. “And he looks lost.”

Leon blinked. “You left him outside by himself?”

“Yeah, and he hasn't run or killed himself tripping over a rock,” Roxas muttered. “He's not a child.”

“He's a year older than you, actually,” Riku informed him, making Roxas gasp in surprise.

“ _No._ ”

“What's the favour?” Leon cut in. He had an evacuation to organise.

“Right. Just. Give him something to do. I'm sure he'd prefer manual labour to wandering the corridors all on his own.”

Leon tilted his head slightly in thought. He liked the idea, actually. It would give him both the opportunity to question Sora about his and Cloud's background, and an extra pair of hands.

“All right, I'll keep him occupied.”

Riku smiled in relief. “Thanks, Leon.” He hesitated, shifting his weight from foot to foot, before adding, “he's thinking about the treatment, so he might want to talk about it. Don't... sway him one way or another, okay?”

Leon gave him a pointed look.

“Right, right, it's not like you to do something like that, I guess.” Riku raised his hands in placation and backed away after Roxas and Axel. “Uh, have fun getting this place in order. Bye.”

Leon waved a little, keeping his face blank. He headed for the mechanic's workshop, hoping to enlist the help of someone capable.

“Leon,” called a deep, authoritative voice. Leon stopped with a sigh and waited for Ansem to catch up. The man put a hand on Leon's shoulder when he was within reach. They resumed walking. “I want to once again ask you to reconsider.”

“Just nominate Xemnas and be done with it.” Leon disliked the idea as much as Ansem did, but it was either that or him.

“I can't, and you know it. I don't want it to be someone from the research team, just as I don't want it to be one of the Combatants.”

Leon pinched the bridge of his nose. “If our best fighter wasn't dead--”

“Missing, assumed dead,” Ansem interjected.

“Whatever. If he wasn't gone, I might have considered your proposition. But now that there's barely enough of us left to operate, I don't think leadership should be our biggest concern.”

“We have two active teams, and Riku and Yuffie will be able to bond soon--”

“They won't if they can help it, and you know it's for the best. Two teams are nothing, Ansem.” Leon spread his arms, but kept his face free of expression. “They could be wiped out in a day, today. And what then? Do we stay holed up in Hollow Bastion and guard the researchers while humanity chokes on its last breath?”

“We've only recently shifted focus to recruitment.”

“Yes, but we can't recruit corpses.”

“You've managed to recruit someone who was nearly a corpse at the time.” Ansem's eyes danced with amusement.

“Because we can't keep wasting Relic on mediocre operatives who will die in their first month.”

Ansem was silent for a moment, looking at the floor as they walked. Leon wasn't sure where they were headed. It was entirely possible that Ansem was ignoring their tight schedule in favour of getting lost in his own headquarters.

“Leon, do you believe we can win this war? Truly?” There was something like desperate hope in Ansem's eyes, but also something like insanity.

“Yes,” Leon said immediately. “I do.”

“I wonder how you can lie to yourself so well.”

“It's not a lie. We can win. It's just very unlikely.”

“Hmm.” Ansem clasped his hands behind his back. “What would you consider a 'victory'?”

“Removing the Dark Ones from existence, or taking away their ability to reach different worlds.”

Ansem laughed, short and brittle. “Survival is not enough for you, I suppose?”

“Is it enough for you? We're surviving right now. We could stop saving people and focus on gathering potential fighters.” Leon shrugged. “And instead you make us go out there and try to make a difference.”

“I question my decisions every day.”

“Good. That makes you human, and a leader worth following.” They needed Ansem because he made them a powerful organisation with a common goal. Without him, they'd be a bunch of people huddling away in a giant metal box which none of them considered truly safe.

“I never wanted this kind of responsibility,” Ansem said in a heavy voice.

Leon could sympathise, but he refused to do it. “Killing yourself would equal signing humanity's death sentence. With a pretty flourish.”

Ansem's head snapped around to stare at Leon with wide, frightened eyes. “How...?”

“I'd consider it if I were in your place,” Leon answered honestly. “I wouldn't do it, but I'd think about it.”

“I...” Ansem swallowed, bowing his head in embarrassment. “I promise you, I would never--”

“It's fine.” Leon hesitated, then pressed a hand to Ansem's shoulder, briefly. “You _are_ only human.”

The corner of Ansem's mouth twitched. “Don't say that to all those young people looking at me with eyes full of awe.”

“Never. I'm not in the habit of disenchanting children.”

“Children, yes. Some of them are far too young.”

“It's not something you could have helped.” Leon clapped Ansem's shoulder once more. “You are a good leader, don't forget it. And if you ever need support, you know where to find me.”

“Unless you decide to get yourself killed.”

“I thought we've established that neither of us is allowed to commit suicide.”

“Let it be a promise, then.” Ansem smiled. “Whatever happens, the two of us will go down with this ship.”

“Fine by me.” Nothing would be left once that happened, anyway.

Ansem laughed and said goodbye, before heading in the general direction of his office, a spring in his step. There were many sleepless night ahead of him, Leon knew. In the next week, Combatants and Observers alike would come and go, leaving reports and bringing bad news. If one of them died, the fallout would be catastrophic. And then there were all the preparations Leon would need to conduct and report on.

No time for dark thoughts, Leon decided. He had work to do.

He went to the mechanics' quarters to grab Cid first, since it was on the way. The older man grumbled and huffed a bit, but agreed to help with the preparations. He barked brief orders at his technicians and told them to spread the word. Leon had already sent his instructions to Aerith, so all that was left was to find Sora and get to work.

They found the boy stumbling in the dark, zigzagging from wall to wall as he followed the light above the evenly spaced doors.

“That the kid?” Cid asked around his toothpick. Cigarettes were not allowed on base.

Leon nodded. “Sora.”

The boy's head turned a few times before his gaze settled on them. He seemed relieved. “Oh, hey! I'm so glad I've found you. This place is huge, and so dark.”

“Wrong,” said Cid. “We've found _you_. And one would think your eyes would have gotten used to the terrible lighting, kiddo.”

Sorra shrugged as he came to a stop before them. “Guess I shouldn't have been staring at the lights.”

Cid snorted. “What an astute observation.” He stuck out his hand, and Sora shook it. “I'm Cid.”

“Sora. Nice to meet you.”

“We have work for you,” Leon said, not bothering with greetings.

“What?” Sora looked uneasy. “I mean, okay, I know I should earn my keep, but – what kind of work?”

Cid shook his head with a smile. “Relax, kid. Just some heavy lifting, running a couple of errands.”

“Oh.” Sora relaxed and cracked a big smile. “That sounds refreshing. When do we start?”

Cid looked at Leon, who shifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Now. We'll start with preparing the infirmary.”

“You expect a lot of injuries?” Cid asked.

“I expect we're not going to save everyone we've set out to save, yes.”

“Hm.”

Sora blinked his big blue eyes up at them. “Uh, what the hell? Are you really calmly talking about a whole lot of casualties?”

Cid patted the kid's hair, hard enough to make him bow his head. “We're just used to it, kid.”

“Sora.”

“Right. You'll get used to it, too.”

Sora's mouth was set in a firm line. “No, I won't.”

Cid clenched his teeth on his toothpick and sighed. It was moments like this that he looked his oldest, Leon reflected. “I hope you're right, kid. I really do.”


	8. Feed your robot

Cid sighed. “Another evacuation. Soon enough we'll have nowhere to send those guys.”

“You don't keep them here, then?” Sora asked. He rolled his shoulder, causing the heavy, metal cot they were carrying to wobble.

“Watch it.” Cid barely managed to avoid dropping the thing. He was walking backwards, somehow managing to navigate the corridors at the same time. Sora was deeply impressed and had already expressed his awe a couple of times. “Hell no. That'd be cruel.”

“Why? It's nice here.”

“It's empty here, and we don't have enough food.”

“Really? But--”

“Hurry it up, you two,” Leon snapped, shifting his own load across his back. He couldn't squeeze next to Sora and Cid in the narrow corridor, so he had to move at their pace. There was little that annoyed him more than work being delayed.

They were bringing extra cots to the infirmary and the adjoining rooms. Leon expected that the wounded wound end up on the floor despite his efforts. There were always more of them than anyone was prepared for.

The infirmary was a room almost identical in appearance to the cafeteria: tall windows and not much besides, except now there was a veritable sea of bedding. Next to it was the room containing medical equipment and supplies.

“Sora,” Leon called, inspired by a sudden thought. “You wouldn't happen to have medical training, would you?”

“Uh.” Sora adjusted his hold on the cot. “I know how to give first aid. Sort of.”

That didn't sound very promising, but Aerith only had so many qualified people at her disposal. “Try to refresh your memory, then. You might need it.”

Sora and Cid reached the far end of the infirmary where the rows of cots ended, and set theirs down. Leon crouched and let the cots he had carried slide down his back until they rested on the floor and he could set each of them up. He took the extra measure of clasping the extractable legs in place. He had no idea how familiar with this kind of construction the refugees would be.

“Whoa,” said Sora, coming over. “Did you just carry _three_ of those ridiculous things? They are so heavy!”

Leon nodded. “I know, not very practical. I think these were used in permanent lodgings. Screwed to the floor.” He tapped the leg of one of the cots where there was a screw-sized hole.

“No, but I mean, you're crazy strong!”

“I do have Relic, which helps you push your body closer to its limits.” Leon shrugged. “And I was stronger than average before I came here.”

Sora scowled. “Let me guess – because of reasons.”

“It's not an interesting story.” Leon was amused by the boy's indignation, despite himself. “What, have your new friends refused to answer questions?”

“They keep saying they can't tell me _yet_. It's really annoying.”

Cid laughed. “Oh, I bet. But they ain't doin' it just to piss ya off, all right? No one ever died from a bit of waiting.”

“He's not going to die of shock if we tell him, either,” Leon said.

“Oh, shut up, Mr. Efficient. Some people have feelings that actually impact their life.”

Leon shrugged. He wasn't sure whether that was supposed to be amusing or a real jab. Sora laughed, but the boy's sense of humour seemed a bit – inclusive. Leon decided to focus on aligning the cots and making sure they were secure.

“Come on, kid, back to work,” Cid said. He didn't sound enthused.

Sora, on the other hand, had entirely too much energy. “Okay, let's go.” He practically skipped out of the room. It was a good thing, Leon supposed. They had days of work ahead of them, and then the really demanding part of the whole operation would begin.

*

“I don't get it,” Sora said, some time later. They were done with the cots and had moved to stocking the kitchen with necessary ingredients. Sora had been ecstatic at the prospect of seeing what was behind the panel in the cafeteria. Judging by the way he proceeded to touch every appliance in the robotised kitchen, he was not disappointed with the experience. “With the kind of power you have, you should be totally wiping the floor with the aliens.”

“This 'power' of theirs has drawbacks,” said Cid. “Serious ones. And there's little two squishy Combatants can do against hundreds of Dark Ones at once. You probably haven't even seen the huge ones.”

“But... We have more than just two Combatants, right?”

Leon was happy to note the inclusive 'we'. It seemed like Sora had already made his choice concerning Relic. “Yes and no. The research team all have Relic, but they almost never leave the facility.”

“They're kind of like a defence force,” Cid put in.

Leon inclined his head. “Other than Axel and Roxas, there used to be four teams.” He paused, feeling the weight of their situation settle on his shoulders all over again. “We've lost contact with most of them recently, and we've only been able to confirm the death of one pair. We have two active teams, though one is... crippled.”

“It's not as bad as he makes it sound,” Cid said, nothing in his voice even resembling conviction. “We've never had a strong offence.”

“And Observers like me are only allowed to go on reconnaissance missions, because Relic is too valuable to waste,” Leon added.

“Oh.” Sora looked thoughtful, but, strangely, not afraid. “So that's why you helped Cloud even though it got you suspended, right, Leon? Because Cloud is strong and can help you fight.”

Leon considered the boy, and his utter lack of anger at almost having been left behind. He was glad, now, that they had taken Sora with them. Leon probably would have done so even if Yuffie hadn't been there. He hoped that he would have, at least. “That's right.”

“We're really stretched thin these days,” Cid said.

“Hmm.” Sora frowned, though his hands kept moving, carefully feeding eggs to one of the mechanical cooks. This one was cylindrical and as tall as Sora. “I guess it's not so surprising that I've never heard of you, then. The world is a pretty big place.”

Leon exchanged a look with Cid. Apparently Riku hadn't told Sora about all of the important bits yet. Leon didn't want to interfere. Riku seemed to have taken responsibility for Sora, and it was good for him to get involved in this way. Sora didn't need to know everything immediately.

“That it is,” Cid agreed with Sora. “Bigger than you think, I bet.”

Sora laughed. “I guess so. I have a pretty vivid imagination, but I can't fathom things like how vast the oceans are and stuff.” He paused, and chuckled again, but with much less mirth. “It's the weirdest thing, us losing to the aliens. It's like one moment we're ruling the universe, making exciting new discoveries, and the next we're in this dark, hopeless place. I can't wrap my head around it.”

Cid sighed. “Don't think too much about it, kid. It won't do no good.”

“Yeah, but it's reality now. I never thought I'd have to live in a post-apocalyptic film setting.” Sora leaned around the cook and gave Cid a wide-eyed look. “It's not so bad here, though, not bad at all! It's actually really awesome. Like a trip to the future. I had no idea things like this kitchen existed.”

You weren't wrong, Leon wanted to say, but didn't. “This isn't a sight seeing trip, Sora.”

“Right, sorry.” Sora laughed and started paying attention to what he was doing again. “This is fun enough to be one, though. It's fun.” He sounded mostly convinced.

Leon shared a look with Cid. Sora seemed to need a moment, but he had proven that spending time with people in silence made him uncomfortable. Cid jerked his head at the door, and Leon frowned faintly. Cid scowled right back, stabbing at the air with his index finger. Leon sighed in defeat.

“Sora, go and grab some more flour. The eggs can wait.”

“Sure!” Sora said brightly, but his eyes might have been a little wet. “Is the cart in the storage room?”

“Yes.”

“Awesome.” He walked out with a little wave.

“You know,” Cid said thoughtfully, after a moment. “If we gave this kid Relic...”

“Yeah.” Sora wasn't a trained soldier or in any way superhuman, but he had spirit, and surviving on his own in a place overrun with the Dark Ones meant he had the right instincts, too. “We'll push if there's need.”

“I don't think there will be. He's a good kid. He'll want to help. And he's friends with Riku, from what he's been telling me. They could bond,” Cid said.

“Maybe. That's why I'd like you to keep your distance. Let Sora get close to Riku.”

Cid nodded, frowning to himself. “Crap, I need to oil this thing, it's driving me crazy.” He smacked the cook he had been messing with. “I'll go grab my stuff, all right? I think I left it in the storage room.”

Leon got to enjoy his solitude only for a little while, serenely pouring salt into the appropriate slot in one of the cooks, before Cid returned, wearing a troubled expression. “I think Sora got lost again.”

Leon massaged the bridge of his nose. Sora had gotten lost twice already, each time derailing Leon's plans and messing up his schedule. “Well, find him. Use the surveillance system. I'll keep working in case he finds his own way back.”

“Gotcha.”

*

Sora stood at a dead end, scratching his head in confusion. He must have taken a wrong turn. Again. Riku had to have lied about this place having a simple layout. Nothing about the floor plan made sense to Sora. Maybe if he had a map, but he suspected he's be lost even then.

A voice reached Sora's ears, muffled badly enough that he couldn't make sense of the words. He started walking that way, hoping to get directions. Soon enough, he realised two people were speaking, and they were either men, or really unfortunate women. (Not that Sora had anything against deep-voiced women.) The acoustics in this building were awful. Sora kept turning into corridors that ended up leading him away from the voices. It was like a very annoying game, and Sora had no time for this – there was important work for him to do.

For the seventh time, he realised he was walking in the wrong direction and turned around. The voices quieted, and Sora felt his hopes die. Then something that looked like a dark figure with pink fluff on their head flashed at the end of the corridor. Sora gasped and rushed to catch up, but by the time he got there, the figure was out of sight.

What was visible, however, was an open door, spilling light into the corridor. To Sora, it looked a lot like salvation.

*

“He's gone.”

“What?” Leon unfolded himself and looked at Cid over the top of the kitchen robot he had been securing in place. Damn things always ended up falling over unless they were attached to the floor. “What do you mean, gone?”

“I mean the surveillance cameras aren't seeing him.” Cid was leaning against a wall, swiping his fingers furiously over his tablet. “What the fuck? We've checked the system a week ago. It was workin' fine.”

Leon stood and crossed the room to stand next to Cid and watch the images on the small screen. “Someone could be interfering with it.”

“Right now, before the evacuation? Likely to be nasty business.”

“That's true.” Leon rubbed two fingers over his mouth, thinking. “The evacuation will keep everyone busy. It's the perfect time for secret dealings.”

This wasn't good. On one hand, there were so few people in the headquarters that questioning them one by one was doable. On the other hand, causing any kind of disturbance during the evacuation would be extremely dangerous for the very same reason. At the peak of the operation, the ration of refugees to staff would be nearly twenty to one. Relic or no, the refugees turning hostile could cause countless deaths, and visible friction among their saviours would likely inspire distrust.

Leon was either going to have to find the culprit before the evacuation progressed too far, or he was going to have to wait and risk the culprit getting away with whatever crime they intended to commit. Assuming this was about a crime at all, and not, say, a guilty fuck. Or a glitch in the system.

“We need to find Sora. Immediately.”

“We really do.”


	9. Threshold

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wanted to post this one yesterday, but end-of-semester crazy has started and I am. So. Busy.

“Hello?” Sora called. He considered knocking on the door frame, but was stopped by a loud clatter. Sora's eyes snapped to the man on the far side of the room, partially obscured by the strange furnishings, who seemed to have almost fallen out of his chair. “Oh, hi.”

The man righted himself, staring. He had long, pale hair, a gaunt face, and was dressed in a pristine lab coat. In the bright light of the room, he looked almost angelic, except for the scowl settling deep into his features. “Hello. And who might you be, young man?”

“Sora. I'm new here.” Sora wandered into the room, ogling the otherworldly equipment. There were strange, bright canisters with bubbling, orange liquid, glass bottles in all shapes and sizes, electrical burners, containers made of metal, glass and something that didn't quite look like plastic. What seemed to be a miniature tropical forest in a tank spanned one of the walls. Sora felt a chill and turned towards a decidedly colder corner of the room and spotted solid metal doors. Sora supposed it was the entrance to a cold store.

The room was so big and stuffed with so much equipment Sora had no hope of identifying, that he wasn't able to take it in all at once. He could probably spend an hour exploring and wouldn't have seen everything there was to see. He walked over to the scowling man, who was still watching him warily from his swivel chair. One of his hands rested on a table strewn with notes, twitching periodically.

“So, what's your name?” Sora asked. He hoped to talk the man into letting him stay and get a good look at all the weird, futuristic stuff.

“Vexen.” The man looked as if he had been chewing on a lemon and couldn't decide whether it was appropriate to spit it out in present company. “Why are you here, Sora?” he asked, pronouncing the name with exaggerated care.

Sora laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. “I got lost while helping Leon and Cid prepare for the evacuation. I'm so glad you had the light on and the door open. I was worried I'd be stuck wandering in the dark for a while.”

Vexen sighed and turned back to his table. He rested his forehead on his hand and stared at the notes. Sora came closer to take a peek.

“Whoa, what language is that?” The symbols were not ones Sora recognised. They looked weird enough to have been invented for a film or a game.

“My mother tongue,” Vexen replied curtly. “Is there anything I can help you with, or could you perhaps leave? As you can see, I'm rather busy.”

“Oh! Sorry.” Sora took a step back. “I didn't mean to bother you. If you could just point me in the direction of the cafeteria. Or draw a map for me, maybe. I'm hopeless with directions, especially in this place.”

Vexen smiled a little bit, which Sora was only just able to see through the strands of hair obscuring his face. “It is rather like a gloomy maze, isn't it? I still get lost when I'm too deep in thought.” He heaved another sigh and swiped his notes to the side. He grabbed a mostly-clean piece of paper and a pen, and started drawing. “We're here, in lab 14-A. Down this way, there are more labs, and here is probably where you've come from. The simplest route to the cafeteria, hmm, I suppose if you turn here...”

Once Vexen was finished, he took a moment to frown at the map, turning it this way and that. “I think this is about right.” He handed it to Sora. “If you get lost again, try to bother someone else.”

Sora laughed. “I will if I can help it. Thanks a lot, Vexen, you've saved me!”

Sora waved and left. He heard Vexen sigh and ruffle his papers, but decided to leave the man to his work. Sora had his own, after all, if only he could find it.

*

“There he is,” Cid breathed.

Leon looked up from the main console of the surveillance system, where he had been attempting to fix its issues – after Cid had declared the system an overemotional woman undergoing hormonal therapy and torn the tablet out of Leon's hands, forcing Leon to take over. “Where?”

“Near research block A, as we suspected. I'm gonna go an' meet him.”

“You do that.” Leon stared at the screen which should be showing Vexen's lab and its immediate surroundings. They would have to have words, but first Leon needed to put the system back in order. “I need to deal with this before anything else,” he told Cid. “You and Sora keep working. I'll rejoin you as soon as I can.”

“Yeah, sure. Or we could come back here and help you.”

“I don't want Sora in here yet.”

Cid scoffed. “Come on, Leon. He's just a kid.”

“Some of our most dangerous operatives are just kids.” Leon typed in the sequence restarting the system and restoring the previous settings. “Besides, there's nothing here for him to do. He'd just get bored.”

“Fine, fine.” Cid got up from one of the swivel chairs with a grunt. “I'll let you know if Sora has a story to tell.”

“Do that.”

The system came back online just as Cid left the room. Leon watched Vexen in his lab, sipping coffee and going through a sea of notes. There was nothing whatsoever suspicious about his behaviour.

Leon didn't like it. Vexen wasn't a scheming man, Leon thought, just perpetually unhappy. He complained a lot, empty words to which Leon had never paid much attention. Perhaps he should have. Searching the system for any traces which might have been left by an intruder, Leon composed a list of questions in his head.

*

The next day went by so quickly Sora barely registered it. The only reminder of the work that had been completed was the satisfying ache deep in Sora's muscles.

The day after that, Leon walked out in the middle of work without providing an excuse. Sora made a face at his retreating back, but he didn't really mind that much. Physical labour didn't bother him. They were only stacking water bottles in the rooms where the refugees would be put up and in the cafeteria, which was almost relaxing. What did weigh on Sora's mind was Riku's continued absence.

Sora understood, of course. Everyone here seemed to have such a heavy workload it was a wonder Riku had found as much time for Sora as he had. Still, it was lonely without him. Cid and Leon were nice, but not that great at conversation. They wouldn't even let Sora mumble to himself.

“What're ya sighing about, kid?” Cid asked, setting his eight-pack of water bottles next to Sora's.

Sora hummed in thought, bending down for another eight-pack to heave up onto the wall of bottles they were building. “I was just wondering about what Riku's doing. He's been gone for a long time.”

Cid snorted. “It's been what? A day? And you miss him that much? Young love is something else, heh.”

“Oh, shut up.” Sora punched Cid's shoulder lightly. “So what if I want to be friends?”

“Nothing. I suppose it'd be good for you both. Riku's a bit of a lone wolf.”

“Really? But he gets along with Roxas and Axel.”

“Yeah, except they are almost never here, damn busy kids.” Cid frowned at Sora in contemplation. Eventually, he shrugged. “And Riku's somehow managed to talk Ansem into sending him on assignments all alone. Which is usually an awful idea, but he came back all right, the one time it happened.”

Sora found himself sporting a matching frown. He didn't like the idea of Riku putting himself in danger. He wondered if Riku would want to pair up with him if Sora managed to pass the tests and get the treatment. What Riku had said about the danger of using Relic worried Sora a bit, but facing the aliens with the help of someone who was strong and whom Sora could trust didn't seem like such a bad thing. If he understood everything correctly, he wouldn't even have to fight right away.

“Quit slacking off, kid,” Cid admonished, though there was amusement colouring his tone.

Sora realised he had been staring at the wall of bottles and yelped, scrambling for the next eight-pack. He decided it was best to stop thinking so hard for now. When Riku came back, they could talk about it.

“Hey, Cid,” Sora asked a few minutes later. “This place has so much advanced technology – why aren't there robots or something to carry the heavy stuff?”

Cid chuckled and almost lost his toothpick, catching it in the air at the last moment. “Phew. Getting lazy already, huh?”

“Nope.” Sora heaved the next eight-pack with extra enthusiasm to demonstrate. “I'm just curious. Vexen's lab was full of weird-looking machines and... things. I feel like I'm in a film, but at the same time, I spend most of my time doing really mundane stuff.”

“I suppose the only precedent for the apocalypse is in fiction, yeah.” Cid propped an elbow on the wall of bottles and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He replaced his toothpick with one. “Don't tell anyone I have these, all right?”

“Sure.”

Cid grinned and lit up. He took the first drag with the air of a man who has been reunited with his one true love. Once he had produced enough smoke to make Sora's nose twitch, Cid said, “truth is, we do have robots. 'S just that no one's had the time to fix 'em since they last broke down. We only bother with the kitchen these days, and the security stuff. We don't have enough people to run this place properly.”

Sora hummed thoughtfully. “Can't you just hire more people? I'm sure there are many who'd work for free if you offered a safe place to sleep and food.”

“It's not that easy.” Cid made vague waving motions with his free hand as he spoke. “See, thanks to our small numbers, Leon and I and everyone else with some responsibility – we know all the people who live and work here. So security's real tight, and almost no incidents happen. Recently there's been... some unexplained events, but otherwise we're good. And it's very important that we keep it that way.”

“But... aren't you in the middle of a war? And Riku says you don't have enough soldiers.” Sora didn't understand Cid's problem. Was the man worried that people would gossip and slack off in the middle of a crisis like this? Or that something worse could happen? Sora couldn't wrap his mind around the idea of people hurting each other when the aliens had that covered – or at least he told himself he couldn't.

Cid shrugged. “So we are, but the total number of people has less to do with our chances than the number of Relic wielders. And since we still haven't figured out how to make more Relic doses – we're kind of fucked if anything happens to the few we have left.”

Sora opened his mouth to respond, but before he could utter a word, a loud, piercing noise assaulted his ears. Sora yelped in surprise. The light in the room turned red, flashing and dimming at equal intervals.

Cid cursed. “That's the alarm!” he shouted. “Means the evacuation's started! Come on!”

Sora followed Cid out of the room and down a number of corridors (Sora had stopped trying to pay attention). They seemed to be going towards lower levels, and the further they got, the more people they passed. Most were running this way or that, shouting orders to each other. All were dressed in overalls, either pale red or blue. They paid no attention at all to Sora, but some paused to exchange a few words with Cid.

Cid and Sora reached the end of a hallway that stretched into an open room. At the other end there were wide stairs, leading up, framed by a pair of doors. Cid headed for the stairs. They entered a room full of computers and consoles, and people using them, all dressed in blue, except for a single, middle-aged man. He was dressed in a dark red coat and stood at the far wall, which was one huge glass panel, so more of a window, Sora supposed. The man turned and waved Cid over. Sora followed.

“Ansem,” Cid said in greeting. The noise here was muffled enough that he could speak normally. “What's going on? Why the beta alarm?”

“The Observers have alerted us to a high number of injured. We're mustering the medics, as you can see.”

Sora turned his gaze in the direction Ansem pointed out, through the glass and at the room below, where people in pale red overalls were gathering. He gasped. The room itself was entirely ordinary, except perhaps for the cables of various sized hanging from the ceiling and slithering over the floor, connected to the strangest device Sora had ever seen. It looked like a number of giant square frames made of stone, layered with little regularity and embedded in the floor to form what looked like a very unconventional doorway. That in itself would have been fine, on the same level of strange as modern art, but where empty space should be in the middle of the doorway, hung a ball of light – only the light seemed to be liquid. It churned and bubbled, flashing rich blue, bleeding into cerulean with hints of green, then purple, indigo, and back again to blue.

“What is that?” Sora breathed.

Before he could get a response, the ball of liquid colour shuddered and spread until it filled the whole doorway like a rippling membrane. A shape started to form in the middle of it, only vaguely human-like at first, then more detailed as the colours flooded into it, filling out an invisible container. The shape stepped forward, shaking off the liquid. The moment it severed its connection with the doorway, its texture and colours changed to those of a person dressed in a black uniform.

Riku shuddered, shook himself off again, and stepped to the side as new shapes started to form in the doorway, three at the same time. He looked up at the glass wall and stared straight at Sora, eyes widening in surprise.

“That, Sora, is the Threshold,” said Ansem in a deep, assured voice. “You may not remember, but you've come through it yourself.”


	10. Time is of the essence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long chapter ahead (for me, anyway), and I didn't have a lot of time to edit it, so there might be more mistakes than usual. But! The semester is almost over and I have three weeks of winter holidays ahead of me. I kind of want to finish writing this thing in that time, but it's probably impossible. As you've probably noticed, I have no self-control and go with almost every sub-plot I can think of. Oh well. Who doesn't want their first published fic to be a three-volume epic?

“Everything seems fine,” said Demyx. He was standing at the control panel of Cloud's reparation tank. The data Demyx was looking at showed up on the now-darkened glass panel which normally gave a view of Cloud's face, because that was how Demyx liked it.

Leon shifted his arms more comfortably over the back of the chair he was straddling. “Why are you making that face, then?”

Demyx's brows sunk even lower, his jaw jutted forward. “Everything looks fine, but weird. His vitals are fine, Relic seems to be doing fine, but... I don't know, it's just that usually minor issues are showing up every minute, and get fixed, and new ones show up.”

Leon sighed, slumping forward. He had come to the same conclusion when checking on Cloud earlier. He had dragged Demyx here in hopes this was normal and Leon simply hadn't a clue. “I suppose we just wait and see where it goes.”

“I suppose so.” Demyx made a few more dejected taps at the panel. “He's scheduled to be out later today, but that's a phenomenally bad idea.”

“I thought so.”

“I'll just set it to whenever the machine calls him a work well done.”

“That's fine.”

Demyx nodded absently and did so. Then he returned the glass to its usual transparency, straightened and gave Leon a frosty look. “Anything else? I was in the middle of an experiment, you know. It might be ruined now. Do you have any idea how long it will take me to recreate it?”

Not very long, considering your attention span, Leon didn't say. “I owe you.”

“You do. But you're a slippery bastard who manages to get out of all sorts of things.”

“Don't give me a reason to do so, then.”

“Ugh.” Demyx stuffed his hands into the pockets of his lab coat and looked around. Probably checking if he hadn't left anything behind before he headed for the door. He paused with a hand on the doorway. “How are you even going to explain this?”

Leon thought about it. He shrugged to himself. “If he dies, I'll take responsibility for the lost dose of Relic. If he lives, we'll have a fighter and explanations won't be necessary. If he lives but turns out useless – I have no idea.”

Demyx turned his head to flash the edge of a grin at Leon. “You could make him your errand boy. Or a maid.”

“Hmm.” Leon tried to imagine Cloud in a maid's outfit. It was a poor attempt – all he managed was the image of Cloud's head on a woman's body. Leon shook his head. “I need neither of those.”

“True! You're very skilled at forcing random people to do your bidding.” Demyx tone was heated, but Leon thought it was mostly for show.

“You haven't been forced to do anything. You've been convinced.”

“Right. Whatever helps you sleep at night, Leon.” With a last wave over his shoulder, Demyx left.

Leon waited until he could no longer hear his steps in the corridor, then walked over to the tank and initiated a temporary awakening. He watched Cloud's face as the man gained awareness. He wouldn't be a bad maid, Leon supposed. His had a pretty enough face – smooth and symmetrical.

When Cloud's eyes fluttered open, Leon shook off his thoughts and projected, “there's been complications.” He didn't feel like using his vocal chords, and Cloud could deal with a little weirdness.

The space between Cloud's eyebrows tensed, fighting to pull into a frown.

“Something in your system is disrupting either Relic, or the tank. Whatever the case, you need to stay in there for a little longer.”

Cloud managed to convey his disbelief without moving a single facial muscle.

“I'm not happy about it, either. Every day you float in there is another day wasted.” Leon rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to distract himself from his irritation. He looked Cloud right in the eyes. “Just don't fucking die. I need you alive and in fighting condition, soon.”

Cloud's eyes spoke of how much of a bastard Leon was, and also of the fact that Cloud was not going to fucking die – at least not before he got to put Leon in a lot of excruciating pain. Or that was how Leon interpreted Cloud's glare, at least.

He nodded, satisfied. “All right, that's all. I'll see you again before you leave this tank, maybe.”

Leon put Cloud back to sleep and watched him for a while, deep in thought. Then the alarm went off, and Leon was out of the room before he really registered what he was doing.

*

People came through the Threshold in threes and fours. It took only a few seconds for each batch, and soon there was a constant stream of refugees moving towards the doors and, Sora supposed, further into the building towards the rooms prepared for them. Riku had stayed by the Threshold and was now helping the new arrivals reorient themselves and urging them to step out of the way. Sora watched through the glass panel as Riku directed frightened people with gentle hands and a smile. On the other side of the Threshold stood a woman in pale red overalls, doing much the same.

“Isn't this too early?” Cid asked. “They weren't scheduled for another hour.”

“They had to hurry,” Ansem said. “Yuffie and Riku reported suspicious activity from the Dark Ones, and there were a few sightings of armoured types.”

“I see. Are the Combatant teams all right?”

“They were engaging the enemy when we last got word. I suggest you direct your attention to the people we're sheltering, Cid.” Ansem's tone was firm, but not unkind. Sora thought he might come to like the man, if they ever got a chance to interact.

The flood of refugees seemed to have no end. They were a sorry bunch, with faces stained with soot and dirt, torn clothes and wild eyes. Some were visibly injured, burned or bleeding, or clutching their broken arms close to their chests. These were approached by more of the people in red overalls, and directed behind the Threshold, where Sora now realised was another door.

The refugees were mostly young adults. Some were children, and Sora's throat tightened when he looked at their faces. They were too young for this kind of hopelessness and fear.

“Can I help?” Sora asked. He remembered Leon's question. “I've had basic first aid training.”

Ansem smiled, though it didn't reach his eyes. “Certainly. You were part of the team preparing the living quarters, correct? You and Cid should go there and see if there's anything you can do for the newly arrived.”

“Yeah, all right,” Cid said. “Come on, Sora, and don't expect much excitement. We'll be distributing blankets and the like.”

“Fine with me.”

*

Time passed unnoticed as Sora threw himself into helping the refugees. He didn't have time to think about what was happening, just kept smiling reassuringly, wrapping blankets around children and adults alike, and fending off questions. Occasionally, someone would faint or start bleeding, and Sora would rush in to administer first aid, while calling for the medics. He tried to do as much on his own as he could – the poor people in their red overalls – soon stained redder – had enough on their hands as it was – but his knowledge was very limited, and he didn't want to risk overlooking a serious injury that appeared to be minor.

It took the best part of eight hours to get the people settled, or so Cid told him. In all of that time, Sora hadn't sat down once.

“You're done here,” Cid said firmly as Sora swayed on his feet and leaned against the conveniently placed wall for support.

“I'm fine, I'm fine.” Sora relented at Cid's glare. “Or not, but I've had worse, and these people need-”

“These people need to be attended to by someone who won't faint all over them. Go to your room and fuckin' sleep.”

“I won't faint, I'm not that weak.”

“You're a malnourished teenager who doesn't know his own limits.” Cid grabbed Sora's shoulder and pushed him out of the infirmary.

The door slammed shut behind him, and Sora slumped, but refused to lean against it. “I don't even know where my room is,” he muttered. He was too tired to be bothered by it. He would curl up in some corner if he had to.

Sora wandered the corridors only for a handful of minutes before Riku found him. He came running through a door, scaring Sora half to death. He barely managed to avoid running Sora over.

“Hey,” Riku gasped, leaning over his knees to catch his breath.

“Riku!” Sora grinned, feeling less tired immediately. Curiosity tended to have that effect on him. “How have you been? I haven't seen you in a while. How are things going? Where were you?”

“Yeah.” Riku straightened and looked Sora up and down. He smiled. “I guess you've been kept busy, huh? Same on my end. There was a lot of running back and forth, and – you know what, this is no place to talk.” He grabbed Sora's wrist. “Come on, let's go to your room.”

“You aren't hungry or anything?”

“Nah, I have rations.” Riku patted the strap of his small backpack. “All I need is a bit of a breather. I haven't slept for like a week.”

Sora chuckled. “You haven't been gone that long.”

Riku blinked. "How long has it been?"

“Two days.”

“Those bastards,” Riku spat, but outrage was cut short by a long yawn. “Ugh. They could have told me.”

“Told you what?”

Riku gave a limp little wave. “Never mind, I'll explain once I can think straight. Come on.”

They made their way through the corridors in silence. Sora did his best to burn the route into his memory. He wasn't very successful. Once in Sora's room, both boys collapsed onto the bed with identical happy sighs. There was just enough room for them both if they pressed their arms together

Sora laughed. “Who would have thought that apocalypses are so busy.”

“You haven't seen the worst of it yet.” Riku's eyes were closed. He looked a little paler than usual. Sora noticed the dark circles under his eyes.

“You should go to your own room and sleep. You look kind of terrible.”

“Wow, thanks.” Riku grinned without opening his eyes. “I'll go in a bit. I wanted to talk to you first.”

Sora felt a tendril of warmth curl in the general area of his belly. “Yeah? What about?”

“The Threshold.”

Right. Sora had almost forgotten about the strange doorway spitting out people from who knew where. “Oh. Okay.” He frowned, thoughts racing now that they had the leisure to do so. “I might have questions, actually.”

Riku flapped his hand carelessly. “The Threshold is the only one of its kind, as far as we know. It was built to link different worlds, and that's exactly what it does. The people you helped today come from your own world. That's why you talk in the same language.”

“Wait. What?”

Riku opened his eyes and turned onto his side to looks straight at Sora, who looked back with wide eyes. “You're not in the world you know, Sora.”

“What?”

“Leon and Yuffie carried you through the Threshold from your world and into this one.”

“I don't... get it.”

“The Dark Ones have the ability to jump between worlds. They are destroying human civilisations across all of them. We, the Hollow Bastion Restoration Initiative, are trying to stop them.” Riku paused. “Don't use that name though. Our diplomatic team are the only ones who have ever put 'HBRI' into a conversation. And now me, too, I guess.”

Sora stared, not so much at Riku as through him. He was more than a little overwhelmed. Waking up to strage people in strange building, he could handle. Cloud floating in an oversized aquarium? No problem. Microscopic bugs and flames sprouting from someone's hands? Fine. He'd watched some sci-fi, played a couple of computer games. But _this_ was a little much.

“So you're saying I'm in another world.”

“Yes.” Riku leaned a little closer. Sora detected a touch of worry in his voice, but ignored it.

“And you've just evacuated hundreds of people from my world.”

“The first wave is about four hundred, yes. If all went well.”

Sora could feel the tears welling up, which was strange, because he wasn't sad, exactly. Just really, really lost. “Oh. So my world is dying.”

“Sora.” Riku put a hesitant hand on his shoulder. “It's pretty much dead already. Just like my world. And Leon's, and most other people's.”

“Oh,” Sora repeated. He sniffled and wiped his eyes, blinking the excess moisture away. “Are there any worlds left, besides this one?”

“Of course. That's where we'll be sending the refugees.” Riku paused. “That's where you could go, if you don't want to help us fight.”

“All right,” Sora said, more to himself than to Riku. “All right. Tell me more about the Threshold.”

He needed a distraction, something that would stop his thoughts from going places. Sora had liked his life, before the apocalypse. He had had friends and a family, he'd had a future. Somewhere in that future, he had always reserved enough room to go and see the world. It had been his great dream – to sail across the seas and hike across mountains, to visit all of the major wonders. Now that dream was dead, but Sora didn't want to mourn it. There were more important things to cry over.

“The Threshold,” Riku murmured. “I've already told you all I know, really. It can be adjusted to send us to several locations on each world. And it eats a lot of energy, so we use it only when we have to.” He paused to think. “This world is mostly empty, except for Hollow Bastion. We don't know why. Or most of us don't – I think Ansem might.”

That caught Sora's interest. “That old guy in the red coat? He seemed nice.”

Riku laughed. “He _is_ the saviour of the human race.” He shrugged. “I'm not saying Ansem is bad, just secretive. And I don't like secrets.”

“Hmm.” Sora rather thought Riku had no right to say that, after keeping all of this from Sora for so long. Not that Sora was angry, or didn't understand why it had had to be that way. He just felt a tiny little bit cheated. “Tell me about your world, Riku.”

Riku stilled, heldg his breath for a moment. Then he seemed to force himself to relax. “Why? What would you like to know?”

“No reason. I just... I'm just curious.”

“Well.” Riku worried his lower lip between his teeth. “My world... was probably similar to yours. I grew up on a tropical island – which happened to be where the Dark Ones appeared first.”

“Oh. I'm sorry.”

Riku shrugged. “Doesn't matter, it wouldn't have survived no matter where the invasion started. It was lucky for me, actually. We can predict where the Dark Ones will go in a very narrow window of time, using the Threshold. If the Observers hadn't been there when it happened... well, I probably wouldn't be sitting here talking to you.”

Sora felt bad about asking, but he couldn't back out now. Maybe Riku needed to talk about it. “This wasn't very long ago, right?”

“Yeah. About a month – I've been here three weeks, but Threshold travel sometimes... makes you jump through time. You lose hours, even days, but you don't feel it at all. And then there's the, uh – let's call it time difference. Time passes differently in different worlds.”

“Weird.” Sora made calculations in his head. Three weeks. He frowned. “How long have you been an observer?”

“Two weeks. In Hollow Bastion time, anyway.” Riku smiled, anticipating Sora's next question. “It takes about a week for Relic to take proper hold of its host's body. And then there's no time for trial runs during an apocalypse.”

“That means you took the treatment right after coming here.”

“Yup. There's...” Riku paused to give Sora a considering look. “There's someone I need to find. A friend.”

“From your world?”

“Yes. Evacuation there is over, but she might still be alive. I just need to – well, sneak past Ansem and Leon and everyone else. Somehow.”

“But...”

Riku grinned, but Sora could tell it was just for show. “Kidding. That'd be suicide. What I really need is to convince them to let me go. I'll have more of a chance once I'm a Combatant.” Riku's tablet buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out, tapping at the screen. “Yes, Leon?”

“You're to go back out and standby. Backup for the teams,” said Leon's voice.

Riku's features twitched through several expressions before they settled on tired acceptance. “Now?”

“An hour ago.”

“Got it.” Riku tapped at his tablet and slid it back into his pocket. “Well then, you've heard the boss, I gotta go.”

Sora wanted to grab Riku's shirt and make him stay. He didn't want his friend going back out there, to another world, where the aliens were killing people and where the ruins of Sora's old life rested. But that was selfish. “Yeah, okay. Be careful.”

“I will.” Riku smiled and ruffled Sora's hair. “Don't worry. It's not like I'm allowed to do anything but watch.”

*

The evacuations was progressing surprisingly smoothly. Only one screaming match had started among the refugees, and everyone was relatively accepting of strange people herding them into rooms and making them swallow unknown medication. The Combatant teams were holding up fine, according to reports. Ansem had the Observers act as back-up just in case, but he had instructed them to enter the fray only if there was no better alternative.

Leon had a technician by the arm and was pulling him along at a pace so quick that the woman had to practically skip to keep up.

“Has the quarantine zone been secured?”

“Yes, sir! We've, uh, we've sent word.”

“Not good enough. With the temporal variance, they have much less time to prepare than we do.” He pushed the woman towards the door leading to the control room. “Get me progress reports. I need them within the hour.”

This was the part of the operation Leon hated the most: keeping people organised and progressing at a steady pace. Leon much preferred carrying cots than issuing orders, but Ansem, their only competent diplomat, had gone to the world where the refugees would be sent. The researchers were always busy and Cid couldn't be bothered, so that left Leon to keep things under control.

He was so engrossed in shouting directions at the medics – who were supposed to be in Midgard, damn it all to the afterlife, what were they _doing?_ \- that he only realised a messenger had been calling for him when the man grabbed onto his sleeve and tugged. Leon turned away from the red-clad backs and the sea of desperate faces behind them. “Yes?”

“Sir, we have a problem.” The messenger's expression was grave. “If I could bother you to go with me for a bit.”

“I really don't have the time to spare.”

“Sir, it's very important. Trust me.”

Leon sighed, carding stray hair away from his face. “Fine, but make it quick.”

They found refuge in the dark corridors. The messenger kept walking until the sounds of the new arrivals were muffled enough to speak normally before saying, “there's been an accident.”

Of course there has, Leon didn't say. “Go on.”

“One of the researchers is dead.”


	11. Rain, rain, go away

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My winter holidays are a bit busier than I expected, but I've promised myself I would post this chapter on Wednesday, so here it is. I'll try to do the same for the next two.
> 
> I dread the chapters ahead, because some of them will need heavy editing. This story is pulling me in every direction at once, and although I have the main events mapped out, I still surprise myself during writing. It's the best way for me to write a story – I have to be interested in what might happen next to stay motivated – but it's probably not the best method for serial fiction. Oh well. I'm still hoping to avoid a major rewrite.

“He was found like this an hour ago,” said the messenger. “No signs of struggle or of Relic malfunction, and everything seems to be all right with the lab. We think he might have just collapsed.”

Leon crouched by Vexen's body, resisting the urge to growl under his breath. Vexen was still wearing his lab coat, which was entirely appropriate – they were in his laboratory, by the entrance to the cold store. Vexen lay on his stomach, head turned to the side so that his face was visible. His eyes were wide open, lips pulled back in a grimace of fear, or at the very least profound surprise.

“Let me guess,” Leon said. “The surveillance system had a hiccup.”

“Uh, yes, that's correct.”

“Damn it!” Leon slammed his fist into the ground by Vexen's head. This was so far from good he felt like laughing. A researcher dead, another dose of Relic wasted, and it was Leon's fault, in a way. Had he taken the time to investigate the glitch in the surveillance system and to question Vexen about it instead of prioritising the evacuation, this might not have happened.

“Sir,” said the messenger. He was really one of Cid's technicians, either on probation or in the middle of punishment. There were no superfluous staff on the premises. “Are we to carry out an investigation? Now?”

It was a good question. With the evacuation in progress, everyone had their hands full. But this one death could be the first sign of something very dangerous going on.

“Yes. Let the research team know, and ask Xemnas politely not to assign Vexen's partner to morgue duty. No, wait.” Leon stood and put a hand over his eyes, thinking fast. “No, I'll talk to Xaldin myself. You make sure that the body is being watched at all times and that the surveillance works properly. But first bring Xemnas up to date. You'll have to do it in person – he never answers calls.”

“Yes, sir.” The messenger looked like Leon had just ordered him to eat something disgusting. He went without a word of complaint, though.

Leon left the body with two medics he trusted and went to search for Xaldin. It didn't take long – they ran into each other in the corridor outside Vexen's lab.

“Oh, I'm sorry,” Xaldin said, dancing to the side to avoid barrelling into Leon. He was surprisingly graceful for a man his size. “Have you been to Vexen's lab?” He held up a file. “I have to give this to him and--”

“He's dead,” Leon said, watching Xaldin's reaction carefully.

Xaldin blinked. It took him a moment to find his voice. “What do you mean, dead?”

“I mean he has ceased to live. We've found him an hour ago.”

The arm with the file swung down and Xalding pressed his back to the nearest wall. “Dead,” he repeated. “It's... It's a terrible shame. Vexen was a brilliant scientist, and another dose of Relic...”

Leon crossed his arms and catalogued every twitch of Xaldin's facial muscles, every shift of his hulking frame. “I expect you'll be assigned a new partner.” The researchers ruled themselves and preferred to keep their partnerships within the larger team. Now they were back to an even number.

“Yes,” Xaldin said distractedly. “I'll have to... see Xemnas, talk to Demyx...”

“Mm.”

A blink, and Xaldin turned wide, expressionless eyes to Leon. “Can I see the body?”

“No,” Leon said immediately. “Not yet. We'll inform Xemnas and ask him to send someone qualified, but I'd prefer it be anyone other than you. I don't want personal involvement in the investigation.”

Xaldin leaned closer to Leon at that. “Investigation? You don't know what killed him?”

Leon nodded, wondering whether Xaldin was pretending to be so slow on the uptake, or whether he was just shocked. “It's an unexpected mystery. You'll know as soon as we find anything.”

“Thank you. I...” Xaldin paused, staring at the ground. “I think I need time to – for it sink in.”

Leon shrugged. “It's general procedure. Speaking of, I expect you to talk to a psychologist.” He hesitated, then patted Xaldin's shoulder. “Sorry for your loss.”

“Yeah.”

Leon left Xaldin slumped against the wall and headed for Xemnas' lab. He couldn't make heads or tails of the situation. Unless Vexen's death was a strike from the forces above – and Leon had become somewhat less sceptical than he used to be of the existence of a malicious higher power since the apocalypse started – it made no sense. Worst of all, Leon worried he would have to put the investigation on hold until the end of the evacuation. That could ruin his chances of ever finding the answers.

Xemnas was engrossed in a quiet conversation with Saix when Leon marched in. The messenger, who seemed to be attempting to blend into a corner of the room, looked at him with a mix of relief and resentment.

“Ah, Leon,” Xemnas said pleasantly. He nodded at Saix, who nodded back and headed for the door. “How can I help you?”

Leon blocked Saix's way. “I want to be directly involved in this matter, Xemnas. I assume you're sending Saix to look at the body?”

“Correct,” Saix said. He didn't seem at all perturbed by Leon's frankness. “If you wish to accompany me, you're welcome to do so.”

Leon didn't take his eyes off Xemnas'. “And you will oversee the evacuation?”

“Of course. I'll find a way to distribute your duties--”

“I won't be away for that long.” Leon did not like the idea of letting Xemnas do as he pleased. The man was certainly capable, but he had his own ideas about what was humanitarian and what wasn't – and they tended to be somewhat distinct from Leon's and Ansem's.

“There's no problem, then.” Xemnas folded his hands together and assumed a serious expression. “This is a terrible loss, as I'm sure you understand. I would be very grateful for any help you decide to give us with the investigation.”

Leon nodded. He intended to do just that. “I will need to talk with every member of your team at some point. Probably once the mess is over.”

“Yes.” Xemnas frowned. “What worries me the most is how much a potential culprit could get away with in the current circumstances.”

“We'll just have to watch our every step.” Leon moved aside and motioned Saix to the door. “Lead the way.”

On their way back to Vexen's lab, Leon replayed the events from two days ago. He had spent some time observing Vexen once the surveillance was back up. And yet, he had seen nothing out of the ordinary. But maybe someone else had. Leon supposed that Sora was the last person who had seen Vexen alive. They would have to have a chat.

*

Riku snorted water out of his nose and shook his head hard enough to dislodge his hood. He pulled it back up immediately, shuddering as rivulets of rainwater slid down his back. He hugged himself with one arm, using the other one to keep himself steady on the branch. He was rather high up in a tree, the tallest one he could find at the edge of the woods, and would prefer to stay there for the time being.

Sora's world was being very melodramatic, Riku thought. His own had died in dignified silence – Riku remembered the calm blue sky and the gentle splash of the waves very well. It had been as if his world had accepted the end and was determined to leave those who would abandon it the best memories possible in the circumstances. Sora's world, on the other hand, had decided it was okay to rain on its people's saviours.

It gave the proceedings an appropriately melancholy atmosphere, Riku had to admit, and dealt with the majority of the fires, _and_ the corrosive liquid from the Dark Ones' pods. It was still miserable weather for being outdoors.

Yuffie appeared on the branch below Riku's. Moving silently like a ninja was her default mode of operation during excursions to different dimensions. “See anything yet?”

Riku shrugged, though he knew she wasn't looking at him. Both their eyes were glued to the horizon, where the rising sun illuminated dark shapes that moved with no apparent intent of coming closer. “Same as before. Are they hesitating, do you think? They've never shown any kind of concern for their own well-being, as far as I know.”

“It's super weird,” Yuffie agreed. “I haven't been able to get very close – Luxord keeps ordering me back, damn him – but from what I've seen they have at least six armoured types, and the rest are mostly knights.”

“That's not good.”

“Yeah, but they're not using their advantage.”

Riku leaned against the trunk of the tree, frowning. He hated the fact that the Dark Ones could be so unpredictable. One moment they might follow a brilliant strategy, and the next they'd launch a haphazard attack while tripping over each other. “What are they waiting for?”

“Hell if I know.” Yuffie pulled herself up to sit on Riku's branch. “Orders are to keep watching. Luxord says we've evacuated about twenty percent of the people.”

“Hmm.” Riku thunked his head against the tree. He worried he might fall asleep if made to stand still for much longer. “I wonder how they're holding up at home.”

“Probably better than we are.”

*

Leon entered Sora's room without knocking and found the boy asleep. That was when he realised that it was night time, and that he hadn't slept in quite a while. He had spent a couple of hours going over Vexen's lab with Saix and relating everything he remembered. Then Saix had turned his attention to the body. Leon had only stayed for the initial tests. He was too jittery to be still for longer than a few minutes.

Leon kicked Sora's bed, and the boy jerked awake.

“Wuh-wha?” Sora's voice was thick with sleep. He looked right past Leon for a while, before he forced his eyes to focus. “Leon?”

“I need to talk to you.”

“Uh, okay? Lemme just...” Sora started to struggle with the covers, probably in an attempt to get up.

“It's fine if you stay there. It won't be a long talk.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Leon looked around the room for a place to sit. He leaned against the wardrobe. “Vexen is dead.”

“Huh?”

“Vexen. The man who gave you directions when you were lost.”

“I know who Vexen is,” Sora said indignantly. He seemed easy to annoy when half-asleep. “I meant, what do you mean, he's dead?”

Leon should have waited until morning with this. “I mean what I said. He was found dead some hours ago. We're not yet sure what killed him.”

“Oh.” Sora stared at his hands where they gripped the covers. “I... Oh.”

“Did he say anything to you? Was he acting strange?” It was unfair to ask, Leon knew. He might care on another day, when they weren't having a crisis.

“I don't think so? I mean – I wouldn't have known if he was acting strange. And he – oh.”

“Oh?”

“I remember seeing a person – it was dark, and they were a ways away – leaving Vexen's lab. Before I got there. Um, they had weird hair. Blond, I think? But kind of pinkish. It looked pink in the dark, at least.”

“Is that so.” Leon rubbed two fingers over his mouth. Was Marluxia involved in this? Leon didn't like the idea – Marluxia was out there fighting beside the other Combatant teams. If he was a traitor, he could murder anyone and claim it had been the Dark Ones. The only way to mitigate that risk would be to warn the other teams and the Observers, but that meant introducing distrust and fear to an already tense situation. Leon really didn't like his options.

“Uh, Leon?”

Sora's voice snapped him out of his musings. “Sorry. If you remember anything else, tell me. If not, go back to sleep.”

“I... don't really...” Sora rubbed at his eyes. He was obviously sleepy and confused.

Leon nodded and took the one whole step from wardrobe to bed to squeeze Sora's shoulder. “Sleep, then. Maybe you'll remember something in the morning.”

Sora nodded. “Okay. And in the morning, do you want me to – keep stacking the bottles, or...?”

It was a good question. “I'll tell Cid to find work for you. Just stay with him and you'll be fine.”

Sora nodded his assent, and Leon left, somewhat satisfied. This was hardly progress, but another item on Leon's to-do list had been checked. Only one to go, and then he would be due for at least a few hours of sleep.

Demyx ran straight into him as he was leaving the housing section and heading back for the labs for a last update.

“Leon! Help!”

Leon grabbed his shoulders and struggled to keep both of them on their feet. Then he pushed Demyx away. “What.”

Demyx' eyes were wide and scared. “I don't want to be Xaldin's partner! What if he's the one who killed Vexen? Because he didn't like working with him?”

“Don't be ridiculous. He would not have wasted Relic for such a petty reason.”

“But...”

“Your team is not under my jurisdiction, Demyx. I can't actually do anything to help you, even if I wanted to.”

“But I don't want to bond with anyone.” Demyx squirmed, looking down at his feet. “I don't want to go out there and fight.”

Leon took a moment to consider Demyx, his performance records and his usual patterns of behaviour. He shrugged. “You'll probably stay on the defence force. And you'll do fine.”

Demyx looked up with wide, surprised eyes. “What? You really think so?”

“I do. You might need additional training, but you're far from hopeless.”

Demyx seemed a little awed. He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted.

“Leon,” said a calm, quiet voice, that somehow carried through the corridors filled with the refugees' constant murmuring. Zexion rounded a corner a moment later.

“Yeah?” Leon asked. He watched as Demyx expression morphed to panic for a brief moment before settling on careful disinterest.

“I want the body,” Zexion said.


	12. Grey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cloud finally gets to do something rather than just float! Only a little longer and he'll become an active player again.

Zexion liked to use his Relic to force impressions into others' heads, and sometimes strange little snippets slipped out at random occasions. Judging by Zexion's expectant air, however, Leon had heard correctly.

He blinked. “Vexen's body? What for?”

“Relic. I want to run as many tests as I am able in order to find out what happens to Relic when its host dies.” Zexion paused, considering Leon with a thoughtful expression. After a moment, he shrugged. “I'm also hoping to recover Vexen's dose of Relic.”

Leon stared. He was truly overwhelmed by the amount of people who had decided to act suspicious in the last twenty four hours. “Do you really think your... experiment will produce results?”

“In the worst case scenario, we will know for sure that a host's death means the same for Relic. I think it would be valuable knowledge.” Zexion's eyes bored into Leon's with unshakeable conviction. He was a man on a mission, and Leon didn't much want to stand between him and his goal.

“Why come to me? I have no say in what happens to the body, and you know that. Talk to Xemnas.”

“Xemnas will say that my time would be better spent elsewhere.” Zexion shook his bangs away from his eyes. “I want you to take this directly to Ansem.”

Leon was starting to feel dark annoyance sizzle just under his skin. “Do it yourself.”

“You have his ear, and I don't. Going through you is more efficient.” It wasn't strictly true. Ansem had always been fond of Zexion – ever since Zexion was a boy, Leon had been told. “I am also here only on a short break from assignment,” Zexion added.

There was something about his deadpan voice that set Leon on an edge. He wanted to have as little to do with the man as possible. “I don't have time for this.”

“I could, um, help,” Demyx offered. Zexion's eyes snapped to him, and Demyx cowered. “I... I'll take over some of your duties, if you'd like. So Xemnas won't have anything to complain about.”

Zexion stared at him long enough to make Demyx blush and squirm. “That's very kind of you, Demyx,” he said eventually.

Demyx nodded and proceed to look anywhere but at Zexion. “So, Leon, now it's two of us. You gotta help.”

Leon pinched the bridge of his nose, a low growl tearing itself out of his throat. “Fine. Write up a formal proposal. I'll recommend it to Ansem.”

“Thank you.” Zexion sounded relieved. “Both of you. This is very important, I assure you. You're not wasting your time.”

“That had better be true,” Leon muttered and went to attend to all the other responsibilities that had been dumped on him. He could only hope there would be time for sleep in the near future.

*

Sora was there when Leon broke up the first fight between the refugees and a medic. The medic girl looked small and frightened, but no worse for wear, other than her long hair having been messed up. The fight had only just gone past heated words and into scuffle area. Sora put himself between the girl and the group of men demanding treatment for their wounds.

“We are doing the best we can in the circumstances,” Leon said, his voice firm. He kept his back ramrod straight, using his height to his advantage. He wasn't actually exceptionally tall, but he could tower over anyone with his presence alone. “There aren't enough qualified people to treat everyone immediately. Your wounds are not life-threatening, so you'll have to wait.”

One of the men was holding his arm close to his chest, shielding it, but Sora could see it was bent at an unnatural angle. The man said, “I don't care. All I need is pain meds and a splint, damn it. It won't take more than twenty minutes.”

“And in those twenty minutes, someone else could die.” Leon remained unshaken. “A child, for example. Do you want to be the murderer of a child? No? Then sit your ass down and wait for your turn like everyone else.”

Sora watched as the men walked away, grumbling unhappily. He kept his eyes on them until they rounded a corner. One could never be too careful.

“What have I told you, Aerith?” Leon was saying to the girl. “Next time you go among them all alone, I might not be close enough to help.”

The girl's big green eyes were wet, but she looked less frightened and more indignant. “I was just helping like I'm supposed to. There's not enough of us to be safe if we want to help everyone.”

“So we won't help everyone,” Leon said blandly. “Simple.”

Aerith's eyes flashed. She looked ready to sock Leon, but didn't. Instead, she wrapped her arms around herself and tried to smile. It didn't look entirely right on her pinched face. “I can't just sit there while people might be dying.”

“You're our best doctor. Without you, some of them have no chance at all.”

“But...”

Sora stepped forward and raised his hand. “I can play bodyguard,” he said. “Just give me some dangerous-looking weapon and I'll do it.”

Leon looked at him thoughtfully. He sighed. “I suppose you're better suited than most of the medics and technicians.”

Sora shrugged. He thought his biggest advantage was that he had little fear of the people from his world. Plus, he was expendable. “It's not like these people really want a fight.”

“No,” Leon agreed. “All right, then. Try to keep an eye on all the medics, but stick close to Aerith. I'll send someone with a weapon for you.”

“Got it.” Sora opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. “Hey, Leon?”

“What?”

“Is... How's Cloud?” Sora grinned. “I just thought about him, because... well, maybe there's someone among these people who he'd like to see.”

Leon ran a hand through his hair, staring off to the side. “He's fine. You'll be able to see him soon.”

A wave of relief swept over Sora, so great that he almost had to grab onto Aerith for support. “Really? Thank fuck, I was so worried.”

Leon still wouldn't look at him, but Sora thought he had a pleased air about him.

“Cloud is apparently too stubborn to die,” Leon said.

“I've been to check on him, too,” Aerith said, laying a gentle hand on Sora's shoulder. “He's recovering slowly, but steadily.”

“Good,” Sora breathed. “Thank you.”

Leon's eyes flickered back to him, finally. “No need to thank anyone here. I'm doing this for my own sake.” He nodded to Aerith. “I must be going now. Be careful.”

“I will.”

With a last uneasy look, Leon left to walk his rounds in the section of the building which had been turned into a refugee camp. It had been sealed off temporarily to keep the people from getting lost in the corridors, and it made Sora uneasy. It was as if the people were caged, too many of them for such a limited space. The air thrummed with pent-up frustration. Sora could only hope that Leon and the rest of the usual residents had a procedure for this kind of thing.

*

Once he had made sure that everything was more or less in order, Leon slipped away for a short visit in Cloud's room. He had been doing this ever since Cloud's body had stopped giving signs of rejecting Relic. Leon had woken Cloud up to inform him of this, and continued to do so every time he dropped by for a longer visit. He would talk for a minute or two, letting Relic convey his meaning if not his voice, and he would watch Cloud's features attempt to be expressive while thoroughly numbed. Since Leon didn't have much to say usually, he'd explain how Relic worked and suggest exercises Cloud could perform while in the tank.

This time, he felt the presence of Cloud's Relic the moment he entered the room, like a pleasant scent, or a cool breeze on his skin. Leon decided to try something a little different. He sat down cross-legged with his back against Cloud's tank, rested his hands on his knees, and closed his eyes.

Leon nudged at Cloud's Relic with his own, searching. He sent as much reassurance at Cloud as he dared, wary of disturbing the delicate balance a new Relic host was suspended in. Eventually, he built a sufficiently solid mind-link and all that was left was coaxing Cloud into it. It was easier than Leon expected. Tendrils of Cloud's consciousness prodded at the link, clumsy but purposeful. Leon let his consciousness slip a little deeper, hoping that Cloud would take the hint. He did. When Leon opened his mind's eyes, Cloud stood before him, looking around with a detached sort of curiosity.

“What's this?” Cloud asked, gesturing to the expanse of dark grey all around them. It was vaguely spherical is shape, and the walls has a smoky quality to them, like dye dispersing in water. Cloud touched the nearest surface, and his hand sunk a good ten centimetres until it found purchase.

“It's a very basic mind-link,” Leon answered. He was sitting like his physical body was, but he didn't much like looking so far up at Cloud, so he stood. “I thought your Relic might be ready for it. I was right.”

“Hmm.” Cloud walked around the whole perimeter, body loose, but his attention was mostly on Leon. “I'm not really here, then.”

“Yes, you are. This is perfectly real, but removed from the physical world. For example, the passage of time here is not an illusion.”

“But I can break this link any moment, right?”

“Well.” Leon turned as Cloud circled, not enjoying the prospect of having his back to the man. “Unless I decided to stop you from leaving.”

Cloud changed trajectory abruptly and came to a stop right before Leon, close enough that Leon would be feeling his breath in the physical world. Cloud reached out one gloved hand, and Leon let him grab onto his collar.

“You wouldn't want to do that, of course,” Cloud said.

Leon assumed his friendliest expression, blank but relaxed. “Of course. Disrespecting you now would make our future relationship complicated.”

“Is that so.” Cloud leaned closer. They were of the same height, Leon realised. Unless Cloud was unconsciously changing his representation in the link, which was unlikely.

“I'm not sure if your caution is necessary,” Cloud continued. “You've abducted and imprisoned me. That's not exactly fair treatment.”

“I've saved your life.” Leon wrapped his hand around Cloud's wrist. “And you're only trapped by your injuries. You wouldn't enjoy leaving the tank prematurely, trust me.”

Cloud snorted, and there was dark amusement in his eyes. “Trusting you is the last thing I want to do. You should probably reconsider letting me out of the tank.”

If that was meant to discourage Leon, it did the exact opposite. He liked the idea of fighting Cloud every step of the way, for some reason. Perhaps it was just a refreshment from the mundane struggle that was keeping the evacuation in order. Besides, Leon had a trump card.

“Sora asked about you.” Cloud's face went through a surprise-anger-blank sequence. Leon tried not to look pleased. “He's worried. It's a good thing you'll be able to see him soon. The kid is way too good at getting under people's skin.”

Cloud looked like choosing an approach to this revelation was quite a struggle. “He didn't get hurt?” he asked eventually.

Leon felt a pang of understanding. He sighed and released Cloud's wrist, then took a step back. “He didn't, thanks to you. He's as safe as he can be in the circumstances.”

“Good.” Cloud's shoulders twitched in an aborted slump. “Does he know what's going on?”

“I think so. He's made friends, and I expect they've explained things.”

Cloud nodded. Then he winced and put a hand to his forehead. “What the...?”

Leon steadied him as he swayed on his feet. “You're not used to spending time in the link. Just as well. I need to go.”

“Ugh, this is almost as bad as motion sickness.” Cloud grabbed hold of Leon's jacket, but Leon took his wrist and pushed his hand away.

“I'll help you out of here.”

Cloud frowned. “I can probably...” He frowned deeper, squeezing his eyes shut, and melted into the surrounding greyness.

“Hm.” Leon straightened. Cloud was turning out to be more than promising. Leon didn't think he had ever been this happy with a spur-of-the-moment decision.

He returned to his body and knocked on Cloud's tank before leaving, though he knew Cloud wouldn't be able to hear it, or even to feel the vibration. He felt lighter than before, and the evacuation no longer seemed as such an annoying obstacle.

Soon enough, he'd be back out there, fighting.


	13. Pick your battles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't been able to focus on this or any other story recently, so writing and editing has been a challenge. I guess I'm just sad that winter holidays are almost over, and I won't be able to go back to my home town until Easter. Oh well. I'll get over it as soon as classes start and keep me busy.

The evacuation was progressing a little _too_ well. They received another two hundred people twice a day, and it was rapidly becoming obvious that they were not prepared to house so many. There was space all right – just not enough staff to maintain order.

And it would get worse. They couldn't begin sending the refugees to another destination while there were still people in Sora's world. The Threshold had to remain active and aimed at the same location in case an escape route became necessary. They had learned this the hard way.

Leon found himself spending more time diffusing fights and locking up the rowdiest refugees than doing proper work. He glimpsed Sora every now and then, waving his arms at people or insinuating himself between refugees and staff. The boy had no self-preservation instinct at all.

Once another unruly group had been relocated to separate bunk rooms and there seemed to be no more trouble, Leon visited the control room and found Ansem, sitting a little lopsidedly in his chair, nursing a cup of what smelled like very strong coffee. There were two empty cups on the floor by his legs.

“Have you slept at all since this started?” Leon asked, and added, “sir,” for the benefit of the technicians stumbling about the room.

Ansem raised bloodshot eyes to meet Leon's. “Have you?”

“Yes.”

Ansem looked impressed. “You still look tired.”

“Maybe, but I can go without sleep much longer than you before my performance starts to suffer.” Leon crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. “You should rest before you collapse and give us trouble.”

“No,” said Ansem pleasantly. He lifted a slim case that had been hidden by the fall of his coat, then put it back down. “I'll be fine. I've been monitoring my vitals.”

Leon stared him down, face blank. Eventually he had to sigh and hang his head. There was no reasoning with Ansem sometimes. “Fine. But have a medic handy for the injections, just in case.”

“Of course.”

They called it the elixir, and it wasn't terribly dangerous as far as drugs went. But keeping the body at its highest activity level for too long put the kind of strain on it that took time and attention to recover from. If full recovery was even an option.

Leon would protest further, but he knew that would be hypocritical of him. If he were in Ansem's position, he would be doing the exact same thing.

Three more days to the end of the evacuation, and they hadn't had a very good start, what with the mysterious death of one of their researchers. Leon had a feeling they were in for another disaster, but he squashed his pessimism and went back to work.

*

The rain had turned into a drizzle sometime in the wee hours. It was like standing in a cloud, Riku reflected. The wet got _everywhere_. It weighed down on his clothes and plastered his hair to his forehead. Riku was going to explain to Sora that his world was a spiteful bastard and its death was hardly a tragedy.

Except, no, he wasn't. Riku knew what it felt like to be torn away from your reality, everything you've built for yourself – it was a dull ache, constantly buzzing under his skin. Sometimes he wondered if it would ever get better. Other times, he hoped it would stay with him, as a reminder of all the things he'd left behind.

The squelching of boots on grass pulled Riku out of his thoughts. It was soft enough that it had to be one of the girls, Zexion, or a particularly careful Roxas. Soon enough, Larxene slid to a stop next to him, a bit out of breath.

“They're moving,” she said, dropping her usual drawl for harsh efficiency. “Marluxia is hurt, but we're going in. You and Yuffie are to stay high and close to the Threshold zone.” She paused to growl something unintelligible under her breath. “We won't be getting reinforcements.”

Riku had expected as much. He gestured to the communication device in his ear. It was Xemnas' own invention, built to convey Relic-filtered thoughts rather than speech. “Why are you here?”

Larxene smiled with little humour, which Riku could only just see in the dark. “We think they've been listening.”

“What? The Dark Ones?”

“No, the bloody birds.” Larxene straightened with a huff. “You can still use it, but don't say anything we don't want them to know. You are encouraged to use it, in fact, and pretend you're saying things we don't want them to know.”

“Ah.” Riku rubbed a hand over his face. He was running on too little sleep to keep up a constant stream of deception, but he'd have to try. “Anything else?”

“Don't get killed.” Larxene flashed white teeth at him in a sharp smile. “If I die tonight, drink a proper toast. Marluxia wants a wreath.”

“Got it.”

Larxene waved over her shoulder and disappeared into the shadows of the woods. It was a pathetic bunch of tall trees that swayed and creaked in the wind, barely big enough to have hid the twenty hundred people they were evacuating. But it was on a hill with a good view of a wide expanse of empty land on every side, and passably defensible.

Now there were about twelve hundred people left to evacuate, which meant the Combatants and Observers were stuck here for a while yet. Riku refused to count the days.

*

The Dark Ones had been shaking their proverbial spears at them the entire morning, so it was almost a relief when they finally attacked. Riku watched from his perch on a tree on the edge of the woods as a wave of black closed in on them from every direction.

“Are we getting flooded?” he asked Yuffie over the comm-link.

“Yup,” she replied with fake cheer. “Ooh, look at them gallop, the majestic creatures.”

It was more of a bounding run, Riku thought, at least in the case of the knights, which made up the majority of enemy forces. Far behind their lines, Riku could see the larger, armoured types waddling about. Those tended to be capable of walking on their hind legs, and used it to their advantage when observing from a distance.

Riku hoped they would stay at said distance. It usually took the undivided attention of a Combatant team to bring down one of the large Dark Ones, and in the sea of knights aiming for the middle of the woods, no one would have the time to spare.

“Do we have permission to engage?” Riku asked.

“Like you don't know.” Yuffie was very likely rolling her eyes.

That was the entire point, Riku didn't say. Distract your enemy with pointless babble, and focus your attention on anything but the impending fight below. The Combatants were spaced evenly around the forest – all eight of them. Few were any good at dealing area damage, but every one of them had their tricks. Riku watched Axel create a wall of fire that stretched along his section of the woods and a little further in both directions. Roxas could probably slow the knights enough to stop their charge. Luxord could create shields, and Xigbar would be fine if he kept shooting fast enough, the damn acrobat. Marluxia's scythe had reach, and Larxene had sunk her conduit knives in the ground and trees around her to form a circuit that would burn any Dark One trying to go through it.

Riku had no idea about Zexion or Lexeus. He suspected they were capable, but he had never seen them in action, not even during a sparring session. They were on Yuffie's side of the woods, anyway.

Riku lifted his gaze to the approaching wave. “I don't like it. There are too many.”

“I know.”

“I wish Leon was here.”

He heard Yuffie snort. “Right, he'd be so much help, getting himself killed at the first opportunity.”

“Maybe, but we'd go after him.”

There was a pause. Eventually, Yuffie released a heavy sigh. “Don't do anything stupid, kid.”

“We're almost the same age,” Riku protested.

He watched the distance between the Dark Ones and the Combatants shrink rapidly. When the wave was about to hit, Riku closed his eyes. He felt his tree shake, heard the thundering of clawed paws and and the strange clicking noises of the Dark Ones' language. Riku had to wonder, briefly, why no one was attempting to understand this language, especially if the Dark Ones could decipher Relic-filtered speech.

There was a half-second lull, and then the explosions and human shouting began. The smell of charred Dark One hide reached Riku's nose. He opened his eyes. He'd rather use Relic, but his range wasn't wide enough, so Riku watched as his friends and colleagues stopped the flood. The heat of Axel's fire made Riku's skin prickle, but he kept still. It was his duty to observe.

The Combatants held their ground without much trouble for the first hour or so. The Dark Ones were packed so tightly where the fight was going on that they trampled and confused each other, their numbers turned to the Combatants' advantage. But when the knights began to thin out, things grew complicated. They used the bodies of their fallen comrades as makeshift ammunition or cover and started attacking in their usual way – in packs. Stopping them from jumping right over the Combatants was the most challenging. Riku shook with adrenaline every time Axel only just managed to extend his fire wall high enough or strike a leaping knight with his chakram.

Riku felt a sudden shift in the air and whipped around to face the direction from where the scream had come before he registered hearing anything. Trees blocked his view, so Riku jumped from branch to branch, feeling his way around with his eyes closed. He came to a stop on the western edge of the forest and watched Marluxia attempt to wield his scythe one-handed. His other arm hung by his side, bloody and useless.

It was clear that Marluxia wouldn't be giving up. Relic erupted all around him in the plant-like form it often took, reaching entirely too high and too wide, twisting around any knight that got too close. Marluxia wouldn't be able to keep this up for long.

“Yuffie, we have a situation,” Riku said into the comm-link.

“Where?” came the immediate response.

“Marluxia.” Riku doubted the Dark Ones knew their names, so it wouldn't matter even if they were listening.

Yuffie cursed. “How bad?”

“Fighting, but handicapped and probably bleeding to death.”

Marluxia's scythe had shrunk in size and now looked like a particularly oddly shaped sword. It was effective enough when Marluxia braced the blunt edge against his arm or chest. He must have trained for the possibility of having to fight with one arm.

“Larxene, Zexion,” Riku said urgently, adjusting the frequency of his comm-link. “You'll need to pick a bit of Marluxia's slack. He's in bad shape.”

There was no response. Riku repeated his message several times, to no avail. Nothing for it, then. He would have to get close enough to tell them in person.

“Yuffie, we are experiencing technical problems.”

Another shout grabbed his attention and Riku looked at where Marluxia was pressed back against a tree, trapped by the weight of the knight pushing into his blade, apparently ready to take one for the hordes of darkness. The other knights stopped their progress and circled the immobilised Combatant instead, clearly more interesting in killing him than attempting to get past the deadly plant barrier.

Riku's breath caught, and he thought it was fear before he realised he was falling, blade in hand, left arm in front of him and his Relic spreading in an explosion of awareness. Riku hit the ground, closed his eyes, and charged.

*

Sora laid a hand on the ridiculously clunky, mace-like _thing_ that had been given to him as a weapon. It was large and unwieldy, its balance completely different from that of Sora's old pipe. He had given the mace a few practice swings, though, and found out that he could sort of hit the same spot twice. Apparently it was meant to bludgeon and electrocute. Sora wasn't ready for either of those options.

He stood a few steps behind Aerith, who crouched over a small child, bandaging a sprained and scratched wrist. They were in one of the smaller rooms, housing a little less than eighty people, packed so tightly they could barely move. The cots had been pushed together so that there was something of a path through the middle of the room, but Aerith had walked off it to treat the child, much to Sora's discomfort. He kept to the edge of the path for the sake of manoeuvrability, but he wasn't sure whether he would be able to get to her in time if something happened.

“There you go, good as new,” Aerith murmured, tying off the bandage. She held the child's hand briefly. “You'll be okay. Just don't do anything that makes it hurt, all right?”

The child nodded, picking at the bandage, and Aeirth stood. She made her way back to Sora, causing him to slump in relief.

The ground shook and a loud rumble rolled through the room. Aerith stumbled, had to catch herself on Sora's shoulder. Sora stood still, waiting. That had sounded like an explosion.

“We need to--” Aerith began, but was interrupted by the wailing of the alarm.

Sora cursed. He jumped onto a cot and waved his mace about in an attempt to get the people's attention. “Stay calm, everyone!” He shouted, hoping the ones closest would pass the message to anyone who couldn't hear. “Don't move until you know where the danger is! We'll check it out and let you know what's up soon as possible!”

There was no time to wait for their reaction. Sora jumped off his makeshift podium and grabbed Aerith. They made it halfway to the door before they were stopped by four nervous men.

“What is this? Are the monsters here?”

“No,” Sora said firmly. “Definitely not. Something must have fallen over.”

The men laughed. It was an ugly sound. “Are you serious, kid?” One of them took a step towards Sora and Aerith. “Tell us what's going on before--”

Sora brandished his weapon. The man froze. “I will, as soon as I know anything. Now let me pass so I can go see where the crisis is.”

Sora tried not to pay attention to similar exchanges going on in other parts of the room. There were two more medics in there, Sora was fairly sure. He wouldn't be able to help them. Getting himself and Aerith out safely was pushing his luck. If the medics did what the refugees asked of them and kept calm, they should be fine. If Sora went back for them, on the other hand, people would get hurt.

They reached the door with Aerith in front and Sora behind her, scuttling sideways like a crab to avoid turning his back on the panicking people. The corridor outside was empty.

“Should we close and lock the door?” Sora asked.

Aerith bit her lip, but after a moment she nodded and tapped at the control panel. “Julian and Bethany are still in there...”

“They'll be fine.” Sora found reassurance in saying it out loud. “As long as they don't do anything to scare the people.”

“Mhmm.” The door slid shut with a machine sigh. “Let's go to the control room. This alarm is going to cause headaches.”

“You're telling me.” Sora smiled, appreciating Aerith's attempt at a lighter tone. His headache was already well on its way.

They didn't run into anyone on their way to the Threshold chamber, which was very strange. Since the beginning of the evacuation, technicians and medics would usually run back and forth along this route is a ceaseless, two-way stream. Sora hiked his mace on one shoulder, stroking the shaft with his thumb. It wasn't his pipe, but it made him feel a little safer.

There was a scuttling sound ahead, like a dog losing purchase on slick tiles. Sora frowned. There were no dogs on base that he was aware of. He gestured for Aerith to stay behind him, and she complied. Her hands clenched on the fabric of her pale red uniform. Sora wished she had a weapon, too.

Sora rounded the corner first, gasped, and backed right into Aerith. She went with it and soon they were both plastered to the wall. Sora tried to invent a new sign language on the spot to convey what he had seen, but it got him nowhere.

“It's a Dark One,” he whispered, moving only the left side of his mouth.

Aerith covered hers, shaking her head, eyes wide in disbelief. Sora nodded for good measure. She raised both hands. Then frowned. She pointed to the entrance to a corridor right in front of them, which would take them on a bit of a trip, but eventually they would end up where they wanted to be. If Sora remembered correctly. The entrance was probably not within the Dark One's field of vision.

Sora considered his options. It was better than turning back. If there were more Dark Ones in the building, Sora wanted to be where the well-informed people were.

He gestured for Aerith to go ahead and pushed her to get her started. She went with it, steps so silent Sora couldn't hear a thing. The Dark One, apparently, could. The scuttling grew more insistent, drawing nearer.

Sora focused on breathing. Aerith didn't stop, which was good. She needed to get away as fast as possible. The Dark One had terrible purchase for its hard, bony paws. Sora had a real weapon. He was going to be all right.

When he judged the scuttling to be close enough, Sora moved into position, raised his weapon, and waited. He heard the Dark One sniff and click-clack away in its peculiar language. Sora swallowed. The clacking stopped, and a black snout emerged from behind the corner, looking more monstrous than it should in the flashing light.

Sora inhaled, and swung with the exhale. He put enough force behind it to knock the Dark One's head against the floor. There was a moment of ringing silence, but muffled growling soon followed. Sora fumbled along the shaft of his mace and found the button just as the Dark One's jaws began to open. The creature made a high, hissing sound as electroshocks wrecked its body. Silence again.

Sora slumped, boneless, more scared than he thought he should be. His hands shook so badly he had to keep the mace off the ground, or else he'd make a racket.

Now-familiar scuttling noises came from Sora's either side, far away but nearing.


	14. Team up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is basically unedited, because I am so swamped with work that I was tempted to post tomorrow or something. But my sense of responsibility took over, so here you go.

Riku felt every tree, every bump in his path, every foot-sized hole. When he swung at the first knight on his way to Marluxia, he didn't even have to think about avoiding the obstacles – his body just knew where not to step. Riku's blade went through the knight, microscopic knives bypassing the carapace and slicing the vulnerable insides. The Dark One fell, skidding a few metres on the wet ground.

Riku didn't have time to admire his handiwork as the other knights noticed his presence. That was fine. Most of their attention was still on Marluxia – the more vulnerable prey. Riku backtracked into the trees. The knights' length, tails and all, made manoeuvring tricky. Riku could risk one or two getting past him, hopefully to be taken care of by Marluxia's plant barrier, to have this advantage.

All he needed to do was to control his heartbeat and breathing, stay alert, and use his own strength rather than Relic to swing his blade. Then, in theory, he would be in no danger of Relic overload.

It took him a while to get back to the edge of the forest, leaving behind Dark One corpses. Riku really hoped Marluxia was still breathing. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Marluxia was still fighting, once again with a scythe.

“Get back! I'm fixing it,” Marluxia called. His voice was mostly steady.

His left arm was swathed in tangled red vines. They climbed past the shoulder to hug his chest, twine around his neck and cradle his face. If Marluxia could move them instead of his arm, he might be able to keep fighting. But there was blood dripping from his nose. It might be nothing more than a burst vein – or it might be the first sign of overload.

“I'll help,” Riku decided out loud. He closed his eyes again and let Relic wash over him in a wave of information. “I think I'm good, if I keep it simple.”

“No,” was the immediate response. “Stay in the woods and don't interfere. This is my job.”

“Your job is also to stay alive.” A knight jumped at him and Riku stepped to the side, holding his blade steady. It went through the Dark One from jaws to tail. The next one approached too quickly and Riku had to keep his sword solid, using it to redirect the teeth aimed for his face. Then he did much the same thing he'd been doing throughout the fight, cutting without cutting.

“Riku, fall back,” Yuffie said through the comm-link. “Crisis over.”

It was true. Marluxia was back on his feet, only angrier than before, mowing down Dark Ones and wrapping the ones that tried to get away in thick, red cocoons.

Riku dispatched two more knights, getting a shallow scratch on the upper arm for his trouble. He warned Marluxia that he would be on his own and retreated to the high branches of the nearby trees. He would hang around a little longer, just in case Marluxia's vines turned out to be less effective than anticipated.

Yuffie landed on the branch next to him a moment later, swaying the whole tree. “That was reckless.”

“Like you wouldn't have done the same.”

“I would have killed myself, probably.” Yuffie's tone was serious, but it only lasted a few seconds. She grinned. “My abilities are a little more erratic.”

Riku kicked her shoe. He had a hand squeezing the shallow wound on his arm and was gently prodding Relic to fix it up enough so it would stop bleeding. He could direct it to heal him, as Marluxia was no doubt doing to himself, but that was one of the more unstable functions, even though all it did was speed up natural processes.

Riku considered this, then brushed shoulders with Yuffie. They weren't compatible, so a partnership between them wouldn't work out well. Yuffie's presence should be enough for a bit of healing, though. Sure enough, Riku felt Yuffie's relic intertwine with his. The noises of the fight grew distant, and Riku's wound tingled pleasantly.

After a moment, Yuffie sighed. “This is bad. We need another two days at least to get the people out.”

“The Combatants can fight for that long.”

“Yes, in theory. But if they do, they will all be on the verge of a critical overload.”

Riku bit his lip. Aside from the fact that hundreds of innocent lives were on the line, and that Combatants were extremely valuable, some of them were Riku's friends. “I'll help if there's need.”

“Same here. But!” Yuffie swung an arm around so her admonishing finger hung just in front of Riku's nose. “Only if a Combatant is in serious trouble, or if a Dark One has made it through.”

“Just one backup team would have solved this.”

Yuffie patted him on the back, almost pushing him off the tree. “Don't whine. I'm sure they don't have it easy at home base, either.”

*

Sora breathed, in and out, somehow managing to keep himself from shaking. Good. Step one, stay calm. Step two, think. At least two Dark Ones approaching. That wasn't good. Sora had a weapon, but he could only fight one at once and leave his back open to the other. So, he needed one of them to find him first.

The scuttling was of about the same volume from each side, giving no indication of which Dark One was closer. Which one might be moving faster, Sora had no idea, either. He tried to remember the layout of this part of the building. If he remembered correctly, the corridor to the left made a sharp turn, while the one to the right didn't.

Sora turned right. He didn't get ten steps in when he noticed it – big, black and confused. The Dark One swayed from side to side, narrowly avoiding crashing into walls. The moment it noticed Sora, though, it crouched low and spoke in its hissing, clicking language. Then it lunged.

Sora waited, not making a move besides raising his weapon. He stood in the middle of the corridor, giving himself space on either side. The Dark One didn't have proper purchase and got turned around, hind end sliding past Sora, tail thrashing. Sora blocked its snapping jaws with the mace and pushed the button, but the contact was too brief to do more than alert the Dark One to this new danger. It backed away, crouched and clicked some more.

The second one rounded the corner. It froze for a second, then charged.

Waiting wasn't an option, so Sora swung. He hit the first Dark One, forcing it against the wall. It went, probably out of sheer surprise. Sora fumbled for the button, but couldn't find it in time and had to yank the mace up to smash it into the side of the second Dark One's head. The Dark One fell. Sora swung again, from above his head, and cracked its skull – or so he hoped. He turned to the first one just in time to catch its claws on his forearms and hip rather than his back.

Sora kept his hand up, not wanting the blood to make his grip slick. The Dark One tried circling him, but the limited space prevented it from flanking Sora. It hissed continuously and seemed particularly angry whenever Sora twitched towards the fallen one.

Sora could use this.

He feinted to the right, making as if he intended to make sure the fallen Dark One would not be getting up again. The first one made a high-pitched noise and jumped in front of the swinging weapon. Sora was so surprised he forgot he wasn't supposed to hit anything, and let the weapon crash into the rise of the Dark One's back. He found the button quickly this time. Echoes of the electroshocks shivered up his arms.

For a moment, Sora couldn't help but stand there and stare. The Dark One had obviously protected the other one. Back in his world, Sora had come across Dark Ones that understood the idea of teamwork, but this had been something else. This had been sentimental. Weird for a creature made to be a killing machine, Sora thought.

Then a third Dark One appeared, jumping out from a different corridor, so close Sora barely had the time to raise his numbed arms. There was a flash, a sudden chill, and a blade crashed into the Dark One, cutting into it as if it were made of butter. The blade's owner let it evaporate and stepped over the carcass to take a closer look at Sora.

“You don't look too mauled. That's good.”

“Leon!” Sora cried, so relieved he had to lean against the wall. His legs were shaking. “What's happening? Have they come from the Threshold?”

“No, this isn't a breach.” Leon pulled a hair band from a pocket and proceeded to tie his hair up into a loose ponytail. He was speaking in his usual monotone. “These are escaped research subjects.”

“Oh.” Sora swallowed his questions. There would be time for them when people weren't getting shredded. “How many and where do we go?”

Leon looked at the blood trickling down Sora's forearms. “Seven altogether as far as I know. You've dispatched three, and so have I, which leaves one on the loose.” He pulled his tablet out of another pocket at tapped at it rapidly. “The surveillance should mark it as an anomaly and let us know-- oh, here it is.” Leon's voice was suddenly more blank than usual.

“Where?”

“Cloud's room.”

*

The Dark Ones flooded them all night. By the time the last knights and shadows started dwindling down, the Combatants looked ready to keel over and sleep for months. High up in his perch, Riku watched for the signs – either of Relic overload, or of simple human fatigue.

Yuffie was overlooking the group of medics and technicians coordinating the evacuation. It was almost time for the next batch to go through the Threshold. Yuffie, Riku and the Combatants had agreed on radio silence, now that no immediate danger warranted the risk.

Riku got up with a sigh and proceeded to circle the woods, using Relic to feel out which branches would hold his weight. His Relic was different than most, he was starting to realise. Using it as a sixth sense was effortless. It didn't increase Riku's mental load, and it didn't bring him any closer to overloading. Riku would have to talk to one of the researches about it, likely Zexion. He didn't look forward to it, but learning about Relic was important.

The Combatants below were assessing each other's wounds and sprawling in the bloody mud for a bit of much-needed rest. The mud was no more disgusting than their stained and ripped uniforms.

“You okay on this side?” Riku called down to Axel and Roxas.

Axel was leaning back against a tree and didn't deign to open his eyes. He managed a sluggish wave. Roxas, face down in the grass nearby, hummed something unintelligible.

“That's good. The medics should get here soon. Don't fall asleep before they've fed you.” Riku kept his tone light, but there was real fear coiling in his gut. Falling asleep hungry after extensive use of Relic could end very, very badly.

_We know,_ Roxas sent him, not bothering to reinforce his words by actually speaking them. His thoughts got through fine at this distance. _I'll keep the idiot alive._

_Don't even start with the mother henning_ , Axel warned.

Riku left them to it and went to check on everyone else. Once he was done, he backtracked to Marluxia to get a closer look at his arm.

“The medics get here yet?” Riku said in greeting.

He knew the answer to his question the moment he looked at Marluxia and the red vines worming under his skin. It looked like he was absorbing it, shadows of the veins crawling under the skin of his cheeks and hands. Creepy, but effective, if the way Marluxia shrugged with both shoulders was any indication.

“Doesn't matter. I'm not unwrapping this for anyone.”

“Is it safe to heal it yourself?”

Marluxia smiled, a little mocking, but probably mostly exhausted and in pain. “There was no break, just torn muscle. That's easy enough.”

“Good.”

“Sorry you had to interfere.” And something in Marluxia's face told Riku he really was sorry.

“Technically, I didn't have to.”

“Yes, you did.”

Riku sighed. He agreed that it was a problem, but it was mostly his. His inability to step aside and let matters run their course. He wondered if Sora could have done that. Probably not. “Well, I'm glad I did and nobody's dead.”

“So am I.” Marluxia paused, combing his fingers through stripes of muddy grass, tugging it upright. “Do you want me to omit it in the report?”

Riku was surprised by Marluxia's offer. He smiled, pleased that he seemed to have managed to sow a seed of friendship between them. “No, it's fine. Write it as it happened.”

Marluxia nodded, and Riku elected to lean against a tree and wait for the food to arrive in easy silence.

 


	15. Not a breach

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnd still no Cloud. (Almost there, though, I promise.)
> 
> I'm still buried under schoolwork, so this is kind of haphazardly edited. As in I might have missed bits, because I'm trying to do three things at once.

The image on the tablet slid away to show a different part of the base. Leon blinked, then noticed the dark shapes moving unsteadily along a corridor. The flashing light made them jump in and out of sight.

Leon breathed a curse. “We can't go there yet. Two more Dark Ones nearby.”

“Oh,” said Sora. “This sucks.”

Leon was inclined to agree. A number of things was going wrong, starting with the fact that the research sections should have been sealed off. Leon had seen to the implementation of that procedure himself, and yet he saw a number of open and entirely undamaged doors when he browsed through the surveillance images.

Had someone opened them on purpose? If so, who? Leon checked on the researchers. Xemnas and Saix were in Xemnas' office, sealed in, and apparently uncaring about the current crisis. They were doing paperwork, it looked like. Of the remaining two, only Xaldin was visible, meditating in the centre of his mostly-bare room. Demyx was nowhere to be seen.

Leon wanted to deal with this very much. No cameras had been destroyed, according to system reports, so finding the missing researcher could lead to interesting answers. As it happened, however, Leon was the only matured Relic host on site that wasn't invaluable for one reason or another. And so it fell to him to contain the danger.

“I'll lock you up somewhere, Sora,” Leon said. “You're not supposed to fight the Dark Ones yet.”

Sora snorted. He was standing with the mace resting on his shoulder, posture loose and ready. “Hey, I've killed two all on my own. Give me some credit.”

“Not the point.”

“But it is. I can help, so I will.”

Leon wanted to say no. Sora had both luck and spirit, but not a whole lot of skill, and getting him killed would benefit no one. Then again, Sora's mace wasn't likely to turn on him, whereas Leon's Relic felt unsteady at best. He happened to possess some of the least controllable abilities among the current Relic hosts.

“Fine,” Leon ground out. “But stay close to me and don't be surprised if I let you handle the Dark Ones. I have other priorities.” Some of the cameras were down, even if the system said otherwise. There could be more Dark Ones slinking around. Or worse – a person attempting to sabotage Hollow Bastion.

“Gotcha.” Sora nodded in satisfaction. “Just lead the way, and don't worry, I'm not gonna die.”

“Of course not.”

They went, Leon extending his senses as far as he could, even though it made the sound of Sora's shoes squeaking against the floor truly torturous. He registered hissing and clicking on the edge of his hearing range, still far away, but closing in. The two Dark Ones he'd seen on camera.

Their behaviour was very strange, even if they were high on sedatives. Dark Ones didn't like to split up when in danger, and yet – they had all been locked in the same lab. They had probably awoken at more or less the same time. So why had they gone their separate ways, alone or in pairs? Had the research messed with their heads so badly?

“Leon?” Sora said, voice tense and low.

Leon realised the clicking was getting close enough that the boy could probably hear it. He began to shift his Relic through the air, trying to draw into the calm he'd felt when he and Cloud were in the link. He mostly failed.

“Careful, Sora. And quiet.”

They softened their steps, creeping by opposite sides of the wall. When they caught the first glimpse of the Dark Ones – pressed together for support as they walked – Leon formed a long blade that fit his hand perfectly. He glanced at Sora, and almost rolled his eyes at the awe that momentarily obscured Sora's seriousness.

Leon gestures to the Dark Ones, murmuring, “distract them. You don't need to try to bring them down.”

Sora nodded. Leon handed him the tablet, and Sora slid it into one of his too-large pockets.

The Dark Ones must have noticed that something was amiss, because they turned their heads restlessly and flared their nostrils. Drugged as they were, it wouldn't matter, Leon hoped. He concentrated, found his inner calm, and made the air around their leathery muzzles explode.

The Dark Ones fell to the floor, writhing and screeching. Leon took this as his cue to stalk forward and drive his blade through a Dark Ones's ribcage. He channelled cold through the blade, freezing the creature from the inside out. If it survived, the researchers might learn something from it. The second Dark One struggled to get up, but the combination of shock and metal floor kept it on the ground. Leon froze this one, too. Then he opened the closest door, found an empty room behind it, and pulled the Dark Ones inside. He kept his blade in hand until the door was securely locked.

“Whoa, that was so quick!” Sora exclaimed.

Leon said nothing. He let his blade disintegrate and leaned one hand against the wall. His heartbeat was erratic and too quick. What he'd just done shouldn't be enough to cause an overload, but Leon couldn't trust his Relic to follow the rules. There were days when he felt like he could freeze the oceans without getting winded, and then there were days when a single snowflake was too much. This mess needed to be over quickly, so he could get himself in order and make progress with Cloud. Then he wouldn't have to worry about spontaneously overloading.

There was the sound of claws on metal and Sora yelped, setting the tablet down on the floor. He turned towards the approaching Dark One and waited, showing no sign of fear. When the creature was leaping at him – or slightly to the left of him – Sora dropped low and grazed it with the mace, sending electrical shocks through the creature's body. The Dark One fell. Leon watched as if from a distance as Sora stood above it with his mace gripped upside-down in both hands. Sora raised his arms, and crushed the Dark One's spine, just behind the skull.

“That was good,” Leon commented.

Sora grinned, swung the mace. “This thing is pretty awesome.” He retrieved the tablet and frowned at the screen.

Leon beckoned him over. He needed to take a look at the surveillance again. If there were more Dark Ones around, he and Sora needed a more defensible position, preferably surrounded by working cameras.

“You look kinda pale,” Sora commented.

“I'm pushing it.” He didn't like admitting to it, but Sora depended on him to keep him safe. He should know that Leon might not be able to protect him. “Let's move in the direction of Cloud's room, the camera there stopped working. And I need stabiliser.”

They started walking. Leon kept his eyes on the screen and listened for any suspicious noise.

“Stabiliser?” Sora asked. “What's that?”

“What it sounds like. A chemical that helps me control Relic.”

“But... That's super useful. Why hasn't anyone mentioned it before?”

“I'm the only one who can use it, Sora.”

The boy gave him a considering look, but he seemed to be reserving his judgement. Good. It meant he wasn't stupid. “Why?”

“Because it's poisonous.”

“Why isn't it poisonous to you?”

“It is. My body deals with it rather well, though.”

They reached a section of the main corridor where many smaller ones joined it. Not all of them had working surveillance. Leon flexed the fingers of his free hand, forming tiny bursts of warmth between them. This way, he could naturally work up to a large ball of fire, easy as breathing. Flame with the exhale, gone with the inhale, slightly bigger and warmer every time.

Sora took the tablet again without being asked.

The problem with Leon's Relic was that it destroyed parts of itself whenever he used the abilities it gave him. And when there was suddenly a chunk of it missing, the rest tended to go into overdrive to compensate, bringing Leon to the brink of overloading. The trick was to avoid the shock, work himself up to every fight. Usually there wasn't time for it when Dark Ones were involved, so Leon needed a partner whose Relic would mix with his and flow into the gaps. He was so close to actually getting said partner. Dying now would be ridiculous.

That is what he chanted at himself when another two Dark Ones showed up. Leon went at them, slashing one with his semi-incorporeal blade and pressing his hand to the other's skull. The slashed one dribbled blood from mouth and nose, slipped in the resulting puddle and fell. The other screeched, tried to claw at Leon, but he gripped it tighter and swung it into the nearest wall. The Dark One went still. Leon shook black blood off his hand.

“Ugh, why are there so many?” Sora asked. He had a shallow gash on his left thigh. It looked like it would cause no more harm that the occasional sting of pain. The thrashing Dark One must have scratched him.

They resumed walking. Leon watched his tablet. The Dark Ones they've met were too impaired to pose a threat to him if he kept Relic in check – he wouldn't be using Relic at all if he weren't in a hurry – and Sora was doing fine. “I don't know. But it can't be a breach.”

“Does that mean you people have been keeping all of these monsters here?”

“Our researchers claim it's worth the risk. I try not to question them.”

Sora hummed, almost humorously. “You guys are crazy. I don't know why I want to join you.”

Leon gave Sora a sharp glance. “You've decided?”

“Yeah.” Sora grinned. He swung his free hand by his side as he walked. “I like you people, and I wanna help. And there's nowhere else I want to go.”

“You haven't seen the other worlds.”

“Eh. There's nothing in them I care about.”

Leon returned to watching his tablet, considering Sora's words. He was glad, somewhat. It looked like Riku would get a partner. “All right. I might be able to give you the treatment when we reach Cloud's room.”

“What?” Sora faltered in his steps and had to half-jog to catch up. “Axel said there would be tests.”

“There were. You've taken down several Dark Ones with a mace, you've passed.”

“Oh.” Sora sounded conflicted, but not unhappy. “That's... That's awesome. Let's _go_.”

“We're going.” Leon sighed, running a hand through the bits of his hair that had escaped the ponytail. He knew he didn't have his priorities straight. Demyx, who was still missing, should be more important than Cloud. But Leon had little personal investment in Demyx. “You'll have to stay with Cloud on your own for a while. I need to make sure everyone else is safe.”

“Will you be all right alone?”

“Yeah.” He would be better off alone, only worrying about his own safety.

The alarm started wailing, signalling another incoming wave of refugees. Leon cursed.

“What the...?” Sora turned his head this way and that, as if the walls held answers. “They haven't stopped to make sure it's safe?”

“They can't do that. The situation in your world is pretty dire.” Leon didn't like it, either, but Ansem was making the right call. The only other option would be to abandon most of the remaining refugees. “Don't think about it, Sora. One thing at a time.”

As they advanced towards Cloud's room, Leon struggled to take his own advice.

*

The armoured types began crawling over the horizon line just before sunset. There were relatively few of them, about two or three per one Combatant. Those were still terrible odds.

The centre of the forest was a flurry of activity as the next scheduled wave marched its way through the Threshold. Medics and technicians ran back and forth beside the procession, trying to keep it in order. The mercenary group native to this world helped things along. Riku watched the loud, red-headed mercenary usher and cajole, and couldn't help but snort at his antics.

“This isn't going well,” he commented to Yuffie.

“What are you talking about?” She was sitting on the branch level with Riku's chest, swinging her legs. “These weird guys are helping, we can do this.”

“These weird guys can't work miracles.”

They heard a soft explosion, the kind that would be more fire than noise. Riku turned in its direction. “Axel.”

“Must be.”

“Back to work, then.”

Yuffie grunted. When Riku turned to look over his shoulder, she was gone.

 


	16. Welcome to our mess

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a little happier with this chapter than with the previous ones. Also, Cloud's back in the game! Finally! (I'm so damn scared of butchering his character, though. I mean, I know I'm allowed my own interpretation of his personality, especially since his history in this fic differs from canon, but Cloud is just the trickiest character to write. Seriously.)
> 
> Also, I wanted to say thank you to all the wonderful people who've left kudos, faved and/or commented on this story! It's so reassuring and uplifting every time one of the above happens. I love knowing that my story is enjoyable to read, and it does wonders for my motivation. So, thank you! I'll do my best to keep you entertained for as long as it takes to finish TDD.

“All right,” Riku said to himself. He licked his lips and tried to ignore how the waves of heat made his eyes uncomfortably dry. He watched Axel burn the air around himself, raise pillars of flame taller than the trees. The two armoured types he was fighting didn't seem much perturbed.

Everyone was busy. Roxas was dealing with two at once, as well. Even Yuffie was doing something she shouldn't be doing, judging by the curses that reached Riku's ears through the comm-link. The evacuation was far from over. They had to stand their ground.

Riku saw Axel narrowly avoid a hit, took a shaky breath and straightened on his branch. Then he jumped. He was close enough that he could reach the nearest Dark One, but he had to fly right through a wall of flame. Riku closed his eyes, pulled his Relic in, and thought of home. Once the terrible heat felt more like a slow burn than instant death, he spread Relic out again. It took him a fraction of a second to reorient himself, and it didn't matter anyway. He hit the Dark One's arm blade-first, driving it in to the hilt. He slid down, keeping his blade only solid enough to control the speed of his descent.

The creature roared and flung Riku away just as he was about to jump off. Luckily, there wasn't much momentum behind the move and when Riku's back hit a tree, nothing important broke. The bruises he would carry for days, though.

The Dark One was a huge ape-like creature, with massive arms and short, stumpy legs. As if it had been made for smashing things. It pulled its good arm back, staring at Riku, and was just about to lunge when two flaming chakrams cut into the damaged arm the Dark One had been resting its weight on. The arm gave out.

Riku sprang away from the tree immediately. He slashed through several shadows as they tried to run past him, and reached the armoured one when it was already regaining its senses. It snapped it's jaws at him, so Riku steeled himself and went for it. The creature's head was resting on its side. It was easy to slip between the rows of blunt teeth and cut deep into the joints. The jaw remained open. The tongue was long and tentacle-like. Riku cut it into ribbons, wasting precious time. The Dark One would be getting up any second now.

Relief flooded through him as he cut into what would be a palate on a person or animal, followed closely by disgust. Hacking into a Dark One's brain from inside its mouth was not Riku's idea of entertainment.

When he emerged some time later, he was covered in black goo and things he preferred not to think about. He spotted Axel sprawled on the ground, apparently having only just avoided getting crushed by the falling corpse of the other Dark One. Riku recalled feeling the ground shake while he had been inside his Dark One's skull.

“What are you doing?” Axel gasped when he saw Riku.

Riku walked over, giving himself a moment to catch his breath and snort black jelly out of his nose. “Helping. The forest is too big. We need to cut away the outermost trees.”

Axel looked at him as if he were insane. “Are you serious? You want us to fight both the Dark Ones and the trees?”

Riku shook his head. “I want you to burn some of the trees.” He climbed on top of the carcass to take a look around. “Things are calming down, I think. No time like the present.”

“Riku, that's insane.” Axel joined him on top of the Dark One's left shoulder blade. “Even if I could do it without killing myself, I can't guarantee I'll be able to control it. I might burn everyone in there. And I'd have to cut every Combatant off. I could kill all of us.”

“I know, but--”

“I think it's a good idea, actually,” Roxas called, walking over. He stopped by the carcass, apparently not liking the idea of climbing the thing. “We can't hold them back like this. Everyone's getting tired, and the Dark Ones will launch a serious attack eventually.”

Axel blinked at his partner. “You mean this one was what, play time for them?”

“Notice how there weren't too many shadows or knights trying to take advantage of our distraction with the armoured types?” Roxas crossed his arms. “They weren't trying to get at the woods, they were trying to kill us.

“That's hardly unusual.”

Roxas made a noise of annoyance. “What I'm saying is that they see us as the bigger threat than a bunch of trees, but they must be really curious by now. And they will break through, because we're fucking exhausted.” He looked up at the darkening sky. “Who knows, someone might be dead. Riku and Yuffie are obviously not keeping track.”

Riku bristled internally and jumped to the ground. Fighting was the right thing to do, he knew, but he felt bad about neglecting his actual duties. “I'll check on everybody now. Should I tell them to stock up on water? Axel?”

“Not a full circle, maybe,” Roxas suggested. “Shave off some trees from our side. We can always rotate later.”

Axel glared at the Dark One under his feet. He kicked it with a heel. “Fine. I'll do it. But you better make sure the refugees know to stay at the very centre of the woods, and which direction to run if I lose it.”

“Of course.”

“And you should stay there with them,” Roxas added. “In case of mass panic.”

Riku scowled, but didn't argue. Roxas had a point. The whole idea was ridiculously risky, and there was a chance Yuffie wouldn't let them go through with it. But it was better than waiting until the inevitable happened and the Dark Ones got to the people hiding among the trees.

*

Cloud was sitting by the wall, one arm resting over a bent knee, holding his sword in the other hand. There was a painful-looking gash on his right shoulder, and most of his torso was smeared red. He hadn't had a chance to dry off the weird liquid he had been submerged in, either.

Sora was pushed further into the room as Leon walked in. He stopped when he caught sight of Cloud and grunted in irritation. “We're never going to get you healthy enough for work if you go out of your way to injure yourself. Did you use Relic?”

Cloud's eyes flashed. He stood in one fluid movement, surprisingly graceful for someone who had spent a week floating in a tank and got injured the moment he stepped out of it. He lifted his sword off the ground but didn't raise it any further as he walked up to Leon, apparently not caring that he was completely naked. Leon's boots gave him an advantage in height.

“No. And what gives you the right to be pissed off about it?” Cloud asked, his voice monotonous even compared to Leon's.

“I'm stuck here until you're well enough to leave.”

“Wasn't that your choice?”

Leon leaned closer – Sora was surprised his eyes didn't cross as he glared at Cloud. “Am I to understand you don't care that millions of people are dying while we sit on our asses?”

Cloud's jaw clenched. He lifted his chin. “I'm terribly sorry about being a little disoriented when the first thing I saw upon waking up was a soldier-type alien. I'll try to do better the next time someone kidnaps me, locks me in a tank, and pumps unknown medication into me without my consent. And then leaves an alien in the room, what the actual _fuck_.” Except for the last word, the whole speech was delivered in a quiet, barely inflected voice.

“Whoa,” Sora said, resting his mace on the ground and leaning on it. He had to struggle to keep his eyes away from the Dark One, which had been cleaved in half. “You guys are a pretty good match, huh? Hi, Cloud. Don't get mad at Leon. We're all having a bad day.” He tried an encouraging smile.

Leon made and annoyed sound and handed the tablet to Sora, then grabbed Cloud's good arm. “Come on, you need clothes and bandages.”

Cloud went without resistance, stumbling slightly. “Your name's Leon? Good to know.”

They disappeared behind the door next to the reparation tank before Sora could hear Leon's answer. Sora walked over to the corpse and nudged it with the tip of his shoe. It was very dead.

The door opened and Leon reappeared. He threw something, and Sora caught it clumsily. “Here you go, a dose of Relic. Just drink it.”

Sora stared at the pen-shaped container he was holding. He twisted the cap open. “Drink it?”

“Yes. It's the least invasive, though not the quickest, way to introduce Relic into your system.”

Sora overturned the container over a cupped hand. Nothing happened.

“It won't spill like that, only when it knows it's going into your stomach,” Leon said. “Just do it. Shouldn't kill you.” Leon retreated back into the other room, leaving Sora alone with the decision.

Sora tried to touch the Relic, but his finger was to thick to fit into the container. He sighed, screwed his eyes shut, and put the container to his lips. Relic filled his mouth, tasting like nothing Sora had ever ingested. Electricity, maybe, with a strange, cloying aroma. It stuck to Sora's throat and made him cough, then slid down like a sentient creature. Sora really hoped he wouldn't regret this. All of the sci-fi films he'd ever watched said he would.

*

The centre of the woods was a flurry of activity. Another wave of refugees was going through, moving faster than they should be. A couple of them got trampled. Medics and technicians were running about, more panicked even than the refugees. Riku took care to remain unnoticed and pulled two technicians aside to explain the plan. He didn't specify a time, and told them to keep it to themselves for the time being. It was possible that nothing would come of it.

He found Yuffie slumped under a tree a little ways off from the camp. She was breathing quickly and erratically, gasping in pain. Riku dropped to the ground by her side and started checking her for injuries. She shrugged him off.

“I'm fine. It's Relic.”

“Oh. Shit.” Riku swallowed, sitting back on his haunches. “Are you...?”

“Nah, don't think so.” Yuffie grimaced, arching her back a little. A tiny moan ripped itself from her lips. “I – aah – I think it's just, you know. I need a moment.”

“Yuffie...” Riku put a hand on her shoulder. He willed his Relic to take on some of Yuffie's burden. Nothing happened. “Let's get you back home. You won't be able to help like this.”

“No!” She jerked towards him, trembling. Her teeth were chattering. “No, I'm not going until this is over. Seriously, back off, I'm not dying.”

Riku considered the beads of sweat on her pale face, her bloodshot eyes, and wasn't so sure. “All right, but let me know if it gets worse. We're still linked, yes?” He tapped the communications device on his ear.

“Yup.” Yuffie turned a grunt of pain into a tense chuckle. “Just lemme rest a bit.”

Riku nodded. Despite himself, he felt betrayed. Yuffie was supposed to be the mature one between the two of them. The stronger, more experienced one. Riku needed her to tell him when he was doing something wrong. “Axel, Roxas and I have a plan.”

“Yeah?”

“Axel's going to burn the edge of the woods. The fire will serve as a barrier _and_ it will reduce the space we're defending. Should make things easier.”

“I don't know,” Yuffie said. Her eyes were a little unfocused. “Sounds great and all, but can Axel control a fire like that without killing himself?”

Riku wondered about the same thing, but he wouldn't let it stop him. “We'll find out.” He squeezed Yuffie's shoulder and stood. “Call me if you need me. I gotta let the others know.”

“Okay.” Yuffie's eyes were closed, her voice small. “I'll be here.”

Riku didn't want to leave her. He took a step back, then another, without tearing his eyes away. Yuffie looked so fragile, slumped under a tree, pale and shaking. Riku was pretty certain she would be dead the next time he saw her, but he had to go. He had to talk to the other Combatants before the next attack, had to make sure they had enough supplies, that no one was injured too badly to fight.

He needed to get Yuffie home, but if she was overloading, there was nothing anyone could do to help. And who was Riku to dictate where she would spend her last moments?

Riku shook his head and turned around, berating himself silently. Yuffie wasn't dying. All she needed was a bit of rest, and she'd be back on her feet, yelling at him to stay out of the fighting, hypocritical as that was. Yes, Yuffie was going to be fine. She was too strong to die here, on this grey, defeated world.

*

Leon finished taping the wound on Cloud's shoulder. “How are you feeling?”

Cloud rolled his arm once, then punched Leon hard enough to make him stagger. “Much better, thanks.”

Leon massaged his jaw thoughtfully. “That was a passable hit. Maybe we can start working sooner than I had thought.”

Cloud's eyes narrowed. “'Passable' isn't good enough. It was meant to hurt.”

“I register pain differently than most.”

“Really?” Cloud appeared genuinely interested, though his voice betrayed little emotion. “So do I.”

Leon sighed. “I'd love to have a chat over tea and biscuits, Cloud, but--”

“Strife.”

“What?”

“My last name. Since we haven't had a proper introduction.” Cloud fixed him with a look that was somehow at once piercing and distant. “What's yours?”

It was only fair that he know. “Leonhart.”

“Leon Leonhart? Who the fuck named you?”

“It's Squall Leonhart,” Leon said, rubbing the place between his eyebrows with two fingers. “But call me that and you're dead.”

Cloud shrugged. “Fine.”

Leon put a hand on Cloud's back and directed him to stand inside the full-body scanner. It was a tall device with four horizontal rings spaced evenly along the support panel at the back of it, open in the front to allow a person to step inside. Leon moved to the control panel and initiated a general scan.

“We'll see if everything is more or less in order, and then I'll have to leave you here with Sora. We're in the middle of a crisis.”

“I've noticed. The alien in the room was a dead give-away.”

“Sorry about that.”

Cloud's shoulders flexed in a shrug. “It was about as disoriented as I was. I dealt with it, it's fine.”

“You're bleeding.”

“And you like to state the obvious.” Cloud hugged himself as a shiver ran through him. He was still a little damp. “Think you could get me some clothes, Leonhart?”

“As soon as--”

“Leon!” Sora burst in, waving the tablet at Leon. In his other hand, he held the empty Relic container. “The refugees!”

“What about them?”

Sora's eyes were very wide. “I think they've just killed a medic, and now they're shouting about solidarity and stuff.” He dropped his arms, looking more lost now than when he was back in his world, about to die a terrible death. “I think they're starting a riot.”

 


	17. Stuff to do

The trees burned bright and hot, and Riku, faced with the enormity of the risk they were taking, felt like curling into a ball and just waiting for it all to stop. He couldn't do that, of course. Held back by a barrier of fire or not, he had stuff to do.

The attack going on outside was the largest so far, with every type of Dark One heading straight for the woods. There was one particular type, small but encased in thick carapace, that could get through the fire mostly unharmed. The Combatants shouted warnings whenever they noticed so that Riku would know where the danger was, but they didn't notice everything. Riku could, even if the fire hurt his senses, and stretching his Relic across the whole woods was more than just pushing it.

His other option was to let the refugees' screams alert him to a breach. Riku preferred to risk an overload.

*

Leonhart was beside Sora and tearing the tablet out of his hands in two strides. He swiped at it furiously. Whatever he saw was making him tense up by the second.

“Leon?” Sora ventured, after a moment of silence.

Leonhart did not look up from the small screen. “I'm sealing off as much of the building as I can remotely.”

“Let me guess,” Cloud intoned. “It's not much.”

“No, it's not.” Leonhart ran a hand through his hair. His pathetic excuse of a ponytail was mostly ruined. “You two stay here, and--”

“No,” Sora said, surprisingly steady. “Tell me how I can help.”

“Guard this room.”

“Seal it off and let me come with you.” Sora set his feet wide apart, crossed his arms, and glared.

Something strange was happening at the edges of Cloud's vision. Tiny bursts of light, crackling like electricity, sneaking under his skin. The scanner made a beeping sound, startling Cloud so badly he jumped. “Whoa.”

Leonhart turned to look at him with wide, conflicted eyes. He went back to the panel. Whatever he saw there made him even more tense.

“What is it?” Cloud asked. He was more curious that worried. The situation felt somewhat surreal to him – he'd been floating, lost in the passage of time, weightless and removed from all that might be a cause for distress. He suspected it might take him a while to get his emotional reactions back in order.

“Your organism is not rejecting Relic,” Leonhart said slowly, more to himself than to Cloud. “Which is good, but it's also not accepting it the way it should.”

Cloud thought about that. “Hmm. Might be because I'm a bioengineered super soldier. Or it might be the mako leftovers.” He rested a forearm on one of the rings and stared Leonhart down. “Wish you'd asked, don't you?”

There was clear dismissal in the rise and fall of Leonhart's shoulders. “As I said, you're not rejecting it. This might turn out to be good.”

“But you don't think it will.” Leonhart huffed softly and Cloud realised there would be no angering this man, at least not easily. He was about to try his best, anyway – he needed to feel out the boundaries, though perhaps now was not the best time – when a wave of dizziness hit him like a club to the head. He would have swayed had he not been leaning against the scanner. He lifted a hand and fisted it in his hair. “Uhh.” More of that clashing, electric sensations, under his skin and all around him, like a blanket of static.

Leonhart watched him warily, then reached out. The static in Cloud's ears grew louder the closer Leonhart's hand got, and he backed away involuntarily. He hit the back of the scanner and couldn't get his mouth working in time to stop Leonhart from touching his arm.

The moment Leonhart's fingertips pressed into Cloud's skin, a stillness fell around them. Cloud sighed, slumped in relief.

Leonhart grabbed his wrist. “This is strange.”

“Yeah?” Cloud tried to look at him, but his vision was still swimming a little.

“It would appear that you're in the late stages of bonding – which means, I suppose, that you need stabilising rather badly.” Leonhart looked at the tablet in his other hand. “We shouldn't separate.”

“If you can't leave Cloud and he can't fight--” Sora began.

The tabled buzzed. Leonhart thumbed it and said, “Xaldin.”

“Leon, I can't find Demyx,” said a deep voice, clear and undistorted, as if its owner stood right there. Cloud marvelled at the technology. The little he'd seen of this strange place left him rather impressed.

“Have you been to his lab?” Leonhart asked.

“Of course.” The voice was tense and unhappy.

“Have you come across the Dark Ones?”

“No.”

Leonhart hummed in thought. “Head for the medical facilities. We'll meet up and regroup.”

“Leon--”

“There might be no more danger. How many Dark Ones have escaped?”

“I don't know.” The voice sounded like its owner was clenching his teeth very hard.

A wave of heat spread from Leonhart's palm through Cloud's whole body. Then another. Leonhart removed his hand, watching Cloud cautiously. Whatever he saw reassured him enough to turn his attention and both hands to the tablet.

“Meet me at the control room, then. We'll reboot the system, seal off the refugees, and proceed from there.”

The man at the other end of the call sighed deeply. “Sounds like a plan.”

“If you meet any refugees, try to lock them up somewhere.”

There was a pause. “Really?”

“Yes.” Leonhart ran a hand through his hair, ruining the last semblance of order it might have carried. “We're looking at a possible riot.”

A curse, then, “understood. Don't dally.” The connection was cut.

Leonhart slid the tablet into his pocket. “All right. Cloud, are you good to go?”

Cloud looked down at himself. “Clothes first. Otherwise, yeah.”

Leonhart grunted and went to a wall that consisted entirely of drawers and cabinets. He rummaged in those, and came up with a pair of pants. He threw them at Cloud, then followed them with a shirt and a pair of slippers that were thin enough to be socks, except with rubber soles. Cloud pulled the clothes on gratefully, but cringed at the shoes. Better than nothing, he supposed, but only barely.

“You won't need the sword,” Leonhart said.

Cloud eyed his weapon, flexing his fingers. Leaving it behind sounded like a bad idea.

“Trust me,” Leonhart said.

Cloud gave him an incredulous look. “No.”

“You'll make things harder on yourself.” Leonhart pressed a hand to Cloud's shoulder, and the static, so soft Cloud hadn't noticed it sneaking up on him, quieted. “You are valuable. I won't let you come to harm.”

Cloud jerked from under his arm. He had hesitated, and it worried him. “Great, very reassuring, but I don't like the idea of you being the only thing between me and danger. I can protect myself.”

Leonhart opened his mouth, but Sora beat him to it.

“Guys, we need to _go_.” He waved his arms, a little frantically. “People are in danger. What the fuck are you wasting time for?”

Leonhart shook his head. “You're right. This can wait.” He met Cloud's eyes. “Grab the sword if you can carry it, but I promise you don't need it, and not because I'm here to shelter you.”

Cloud didn't feel convinced. He left the sword behind anyway. It wasn't the ideal weapon for fighting indoors, anyway.

*

Someone was screaming. Riku was pretty certain the voice belonged to Roxas. Riku was already right by the wall of fire, having just finished running the perimeter and dealing with the more persistent Dark Ones who, thankfully, were not left unscathed by the flames. Things were calming down – the flames were less wild now, but the Dark Ones seemed to have lost their impetus. So, really, all it took was to find a place where a tree had already fallen and the wall of fire was thin. Riku stood on a branch, testing its strength. He breathed, tasted smoke, and breathed more, open-mouthed. Another scream, and Riku jumped, pulling Relic deep into himself.

He released it in a wave as soon as he hit the ground – and rolled, to put out the flames that had caught onto his uniform – but it wasn't soon enough. A long, spiked tail slammed to the ground where Riku's legs had been a second before. Dirt flew into Riku's face, but his eyes were already closed.

He dealt with the Dark One as he had been doing before. He dived underneath it's belly and cut as he ran, careful not to spill the potentially corrosive entrails onto himself. They burned the rim of his coat. The Dark One – barely the height of an elephant – fell and rattled in distress. Riku had no time to finish it off. There was another scream, close-by, and now Riku heard the frustration in it.

He found Roxas on the ground, left leg crushed under one of the biggest Dark Ones. He couldn't see past the middle of Roxas' thigh, so he felt with Relic.

“That's not good,” he said.

“Tell me more,” Roxas managed through clenched teeth. He seemed to be attempting to pull his leg out by force.

“Stop moving.” Riku knelt by him, pushed at the giant carcass experimentally. “Hm. I'll have to dig around it.”

“No time.” Roxas' breathing was uneven. “The next wave's about to crash.”

He was proven correct a moment later when a flying Dark One dived for them with a sound that fell between a screech and a hiss. Riku stood and prepared to fend it off, though he was fairly certain he couldn't stop a creature so big moving at that velocity.

There was a flash and a burst of hot air. The Dark One fell silently, burning.

“Ah, fuck,” Axel said, panting. He extended his arm and caught the returning chakram. “I did not mean to make a flare of it. We're so dead.”

“Just cover us,” Riku said, and got to digging.

Axel fought like Riku had never seen him fight – desperately, with his balance shot and his eyes unfocused. He looked about to fall any moment, kept swaying and barely catching his balance, just in time to send a chakram through another Dark One's skull.

“It's the fire,” Roxas said, noticing Riku's distraction. “Has to be a bitch to control. Axel might really lose it this time.”

“Don't talk like that.” Riku wass using Relic to dig, invisible spheres of needles around his hands, softening the dirt. He needed to be careful not to hurt Roxas, though. “He'll be fine. We'll all be fine.”

“You almost sound like you believe it.” Roxas sucked in a sharp breath. “Riku.”

Riku could feel it, too, though too late for his tastes – his Relic was engaged elsewhere, and so Riku's guard had had to be let down. Despite Axel's efforts, the wave got to them too quickly. Riku sent Relic out and scrambled to his feet, blade shaping itself in his hand. He could feel Roxas form a blade as well, and bit back a protest. He wasn't sure whether he would be able to protect them both.

There were dozens of them when they came, jumping over the giant carcass. Mostly knights and a few shadows, usually not a problem, but Riku was worn out and surrounded. The Dark Ones quickly realised he was protecting Roxas, and organised themselves to take advantage of it. Their clicking, hissing language hurt Riku's ears. He stood his ground and fought them off, but he didn't have time for a finishing blow before the next Dark One came, and so the number of his attackers wasn't diminishing. Riku felt the burn in his muscles – and soon noticed that it went beyond that, sunk deep into his bones and travelled through his veins. His Relic was burrowing deep into his body and would soon begin to devour it. It didn't feel like such a bad thing to Riku. Certainly a better end than being eaten by Dark Ones.

Roxas screamed, and Riku whipped around, thoughts of a peaceful end forgotten. He saw Roxas try to fend off two knights, his bright blade snapping this way and that. One of the knights bit deep into Roxas' shoulder, tearing another scream out of the boy.

Riku was there a second later, blade going through the knights and dropping them immediately. He turned around and stood over Roxas, panting. The Dark Ones that surrounded them watched curiously.

“I hope you've been digging yourself out,” Riku said.

A moan tore itself out of Roxas' throat. “Of course. Almost. Done.”

Riku wondered whether Roxas' leg was salvageable at this point. He decided he didn't need to know yet.

“Where's Axel?” Roxas asked.

“To my left and your right, staging an impromptu fireworks show.”

“Should stay... closer.”

“Maybe, but then we'd be dead.” Axel was attracting most of the surrounding Dark Ones, and keeping them at bay somehow. Riku suspected he managed mostly because he had stopped caring about preserving energy and overloading. He couldn't say that to Roxas, though. “Dig, man. I have limits, and there's a fuckton of Dark Ones coming our way.”

“I can tell.” Roxas grunted, gasped – Riku didn't turn to look at him. “I can feel the ground shake.”

The nearest knight had had enough of waiting and lunged. Riku couldn't sidestep it entirely without throwing the corpse at Roxas, so he stabbed and held on, using the knight to shield himself from the next attack.

Three more Dark One corpses before Roxas said, “I'm free.”

Riku felt him crawl out from under the carcass and stand on a shaky leg. His other leg was broken in several places and bleeding heavily. There would be no more fighting for Roxas in this operation, Riku decided.

“Gotta get you into the woods.” He heaved another Dark One to the side and spun out of the way of another, catching it with the tip of his blade at the back of its skull. It crumpled.

Riku prepared himself to fend off both Roxas' protests and the Dark Ones, but Roxas said, “yeah, okay.” It made things marginally easier. There was still an army of Dark Ones between them and the woods. About a hundred metres that might as well have been miles.

“Get back to the Threshold, Riku,” came Yuffie's voice over the comm-link. She sounded exhausted, but alive.

“Yuffie,” Riku breathed, relief pouring through him, making his knees soft.

“Get back,” she repeated. “We're pulling out.”

That wasn't right. “What? We can't be pulling out. There's no way all the refugees--”

“Don't question me, it's not my order,” Yuffie said sharply. “Just get over here.”

“I can't, there's a--”

A flood of light and heat, and there were only charred corpses where Dark Ones had been. Axel stood with his back to Riku, arms splayed wide, flaming chakrams spinning in wide circles around him.

“Grab Roxas and go.”

Riku's chest felt too tight. “Axel...”

“Fuck you,” Roxas said in a shaky voice. He pushed himself away from the carcass, jumping on one leg. Riku caught his arm to keep him upright. “There will be no dumb heroics, Axel. You're going back with the rest of us.”

“They know we're retreating now that it's been announced.” Axel laughed, and it was a hollow sound. “You know, I didn't have much of a life before coming to Hollow Bastion. I was a nobody. But you people, and the Initiative – you've given me a purpose, you know? So I want to do my fucking best. And if my fucking best means dying here, then so be it.”

“No.” Riku opened his eyes, and yelled in shock.

Axel's face was turned towards them just enough that the cracks in his skin were visible. Between the bleeding flakes of flesh was fire – or something very much like it. Something like what Riku imagined the sun was made of. The blood sizzled, and the skin on the edges charred. Axel's eyes were squeezed shut, his eyelashes melted, and thick red liquid trickled down the sides of his face.

“Take Roxas and go,” Axel said again, in a voice so calm Riku wanted to shake him – but he was afraid to touch. “I'll keep the fire going as long as I can. You should make it.” He chuckled deep in his throat. “Seems like the Dark Ones are somewhat hesitant about approaching me now. Maybe they can tell what I'm thinking.”

“And what are you thinking?” Roxas' voice was almost a whisper.

“Eh, you know, my usual grandiose plans. I want to blow them all up once you've gone.”

Riku couldn't move. Couldn't force a single word out of his throat. The state of Axel's Relic made his senses tingle and filled him with paralysing dread. Riku was pretty certain the fear wasn't entirely his own. He hadn't seen anyone overload before. If this was how it went, Riku really, really didn't want to experience it, ever.

“Let's go,” he found himself saying, and pulled Roxas towards the fire. “You need to get away from the fighting, anyway. Axel offers to cover us, so...”

“And you're going to just let him die?” Roxas struggled, but he was weakened and losing blood.

Riku did not reply. He looked across the hundred metres or so they had to cover and picked Roxas up, arranging him in a fireman's carry. “Don't wriggle or I'll drop you.”

“That's the idea.”

Axel came over and pressed a hand to Roxas' forehead. Riku's senses screamed at the closeness, and the heat.

“I'll knock you out if I have to,” Axel warned. “Get into the fucking woods. Then you can start being a brat about leaving me here.”

Roxas said nothing, but Riku could feel him tremble, so he nodded at Axel once and started walking. He kept his eyes open and Relic reigned in, though there were Dark Ones heading straight for them. Riku registered them on the edge of his consciousness when they got close, when they invariably erupted with waves of heat and stopped moving. Riku didn't look back.

When he reached the edge of the woods, Riku used Relic to find the safest place to cross the wall of fire. Hot wind buffeted his back, and Riku did not want to find out why.

“Hey, Roxas.”

“What.”

“We're jumping through.”

“And?”

“Thought you might run interference or something. This fire is... not like before.” It was brighter, hotter, and somehow more alive. It danced and shivered, forming eerie shapes, stretching up over the treetops, reaching into the night.

Roxas snorted. “Can't. I'm exhausted.”

Riku nodded, steeling himself. “Okay, then.”

He knew it wasn't a good idea, but he kept Relic spinning around himself and Roxas. It wasn't much of a protection, but it was better than nothing, he reasoned. Even if it would only make the pain worse.

Riku took a running start, because without the momentum, he would never gather the courage to jump. When they were going through the fire, Riku's senses were engulfed in white light and silence. Then he hit the ground and felt what his Relic was feeling. His knees gave out.

“Riku?” Roxas' voice was coming from somewhere far away. “Riku, up. Things to do.”

Riku's skin felt dry, brittle and too small for him. He felt like scratching it off. Calm, he told himself, stay calm. Think. He was breathing too fast and his heart rate was ridiculous. Tingling in his fingertips. Spikes of pain all over his consciousness. Relic, distressed, melting all around him.

All right. Fine. He could do this.

Riku stood up with an involuntary moan. Roxas didn't say anything. They moved deeper into the woods, as fast as Riku could walk, which wasn't fast at all. He concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other and keeping a solid barrier between his awareness and Relic, to keep away the wave of blinding pain he knew he would be feeling otherwise.

But Riku was good at this, or so he liked to think. He could ignore the fact that Relic was trying to break free of his skin, that his senses were a mess of useless information. Things to do, places to be. Riku could do this.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is so long by accident, but it gives me the opportunity to ask: how do you like my usual chapter size, o wonderful readers? I generally aim for around two thousand words. This seems to me like a manageable chunk – a reasonably quick read. At the same time, keeping the chapters so short helps me maintain the regular updates. But I'm curious about what you think.


	18. Retreat

The weight of his mace was a cold comfort to Sora as he struggled to keep up with Xaldin. They were running through the maze of corridors, using side routes that no one frequented in order to avoid the refugees. They needed to get to the control room before the rioters, and before Leon sealed that section of the building off. Sora wasn't sure why, but Leon had made it seem important.

Demyx was still nowhere to be found, and Sora was starting to realise that the people living here did not know Hollow Bastion very well. Their surveillance cameras were all well and good, but they helped little when the people using them couldn't even tell which room wasn't showing up on the screen.

Xaldin bypassed the stairs to the control room and went straight for the Threshold. Sora hesitated, but followed. Inside there were several fidgety medics in pale red overalls. They didn't seem to notice the new arrivals and just kept going about their business, setting up stretchers and first aid kits. Things had to be really bad on the other side of the Threshold.

“I'm glad you two are here, Sora, Xaldin,” came Ansem's voice over the speakers. “I need you to keep the arriving refugees in order and to assist our medical teams.” Ansem paused. “This is the last stage of the evacuation. The Combatants and Observes will be returning, as well.”

“What?” Xaldin craned his neck to look at Ansem through the glass panel. “That's not right. There's too many people on the other side to threshold them all at once.”

Ansem nodded stiffly. “You're right. Not all of them will make it.”

Xaldin sucked in a sharp breath. Sora gripped his mace, trying to ignore the cold feeling that had taken hold of his chest. He didn't understand. Were the combatants okay? Was Riku okay?

“What's going on?” he murmured, not expecting an answer.

“Fuck if I know,” Xaldin said, startling Sora. He grabbed Sora's arm and directed him to the nearest wall. Both of them sat, cross legged, and waited. “It would appear that the operation will not be a complete success.”

“Many people have been saved already.” They were ungrateful – frightened – bastards, but Sora was glad they hadn't been stuck with the Dark Ones.

“Yes. You have to realise, however, that we are only sending them to other worlds, where they might soon face the same threat.” Xaldin's eyes slid shut. “It's not a solution, just a stalling tactic.”

Sora didn't know how to respond to that. He didn't have to – the Threshold lit up with colour hanging in the middle of its frame, and the first of the new arrivals started taking shape. Soon, Sora was running back and forth and helping the medics, mace forgotten by the wall. The refugees looked terrible – dirty, dishevelled, with wide, reddened eyes. They carried the smell of smoke and disaster.

Sora tried to talk to some of them, ask about the people in black uniforms, but all he got in response were frightened expressions and shaking heads. Whatever was going on on the other side, these people didn't want to think about it any more.

A shout came from the close vicinity of the Threshold. Sora recognised Riku's voice and was running before he even realised it. What he saw brought him to his knees at Riku's side, which was just as well – Roxas, who was unconscious and sprawled over Riku's back, needed medical attention immediately.

“What happened?” Sora asked quietly, helping a medic take Roxas off Riku's back and arrange him on a stretcher.

Riku laughed, and it was a grating, hollow sound that left him almost breathless. “Want me to start from the beginning?”

Sora grabbed Riku's arm, threw it over his shoulder, and pulled him upright. Riku seemed content to let Sora lug him about and barely even tried to support his weight.

“Get him in here, Sora,” said Ansem through the speakers. “I want a full report immediately.”

“Oh, fantastic,” Riku murmured into Sora's neck. His lips were badly chapped. He got his feet under him and leaned in the direction of the door, forcing Sora to move or fall over. “Come on, better he knows now.”

Sora wanted very much to carry Riku off to a bed and have a team of medics check him over. There was something very wrong with Riku. Sora could feel it under his skin, like a fever-warm tingling. He didn't know what it was, just that it couldn't be good. Riku had a job to finish, though, so Sora wrapped a steady arm around him and led him to the other room, then up the stairs to where Ansem wanted them.

They had a chair prepared, at least, and Riku spilled into it gratefully. Sora wasn't sure where he should put himself, so he gripped the back of Riku's chair and resolved to stare down anyone who tried to remove him from his self-appointed post.

Ansem sat opposite Riku in a swivel chair, still half-turned towards a console and a screen overflowing with strange symbols. His eyes shifted back and forth at even intervals. “Riku. I'm glad to see you mostly unharmed.”

Riku laughed, raspy, finishing with a cough. “Unharmed? I don't think so.” He hunched over, resting his head in his hands and spoke to his knees. “Status report. Number of Combatant casualties: unknown. Number of medic casualties: probably a lot. Observer casualties: dunno, heard Yuffie talk, but she might have been shouting at me from the underworld.”

“Yuffie is fine,” Ansem said. “She has contacted me the moment the Threshold came online. She should be here shortly.”

Riku slumped further, as if the last bit of tension holding him upright had been removed. “Thank fuck. I really thought...”

“What happened, Riku?” Ansem's voice was not unkind, but he wasn't trying to be gentle, either.

Sora moved one hand to Riku's shoulder and glared.

Riku shook his head. “The Dark Ones gathered for a coordinated attack. We were not prepared. Axel--” His voice broke. Riku swallowed and tried again. “Axel used the trees to create a ring of fire around the refugees – as protection. It worked well enough, we held out a little longer than we would have otherwise, but...”

The silence stretched, weighing on Sora's gut. He had to focus on not squeezing Riku's shoulder. Riku might have wounds that didn't need aggravating.

“Yes?” Ansem prompted. He was very pale.

And Riku was trembling, barely noticeable, but he was. “I don't know, sir. Some of the Combatants would have had to go through the fire. I don't know how many of them made it. And Axel...”

There was a very slight catch in Ansem's breathing. He straightened and turned back to his console. “I understand the strain of maintaining the fire barrier lead to his overload.”

“I've never seen something like that before,” Riku said, in a voice that conveyed both terror and wonder. “It was like – like he was burning inside and only just keeping it in.”

“Sora, take Riku to the infirmary,” Ansem said firmly. Then he seemed to reconsider his order. “No, I will go with you. There is an issue I need to address elsewhere, and I understand it is not safe to travel the corridors alone at this time.”

“Uh, sir,” Sora began carefully. “It won't be safe with just me and Riku, either. Xaldin is--”

“No,” Ansem said immediately. “No, Xaldin's presence is required here. Don't worry, we will use a passage known to very few.”

Sora sighed in defeat, pulled Riku out of his chair, and followed after Ansem. He met Xaldin's eyes through the glass panel and signed at himself, then at Ansem's back. Xaldin frowned, but nodded, and pointed at the Threshold with a shrug. He would be going nowhere.

Riku was pretty much a dead weight and clutched at Sora's clothes for dear life. He was breathing too quickly and couldn't seem to keep his eyes open. Whenever he did manage to operate his eyelids properly, Sora got a glimpse of blown pupils and bloodshot whites.

Ansem led them through deserted corridors. He opened several doors that weren't actually doors, just wall panels that looked exactly the same as the the ones in the rest of the building. Yet Ansem did not press the wrong part of a wall once. They reached a room that looked exactly like the one in which Cloud had spent most of his time here, except there was no dead alien and no blood.

“Does Riku need to go into the tank?” Sora asked.

Ansem was already in the adjoining room, where Sora supposed most of the medical supplies were, and didn't answer. Instead of following, Sora helped Riku into a chair and crouched in front of him.

“Do you need to go into the tank?”

Riku smiled weakly. Sora had to lean in and crane his neck to see it, because Riku didn't have the energy to lift his head.

“I don't think so. I probably just need rest and liquids, and then food.”

“Right.” Sora stood and looked around. He squinted at a basin under a metal box with several buttons attached to the wall. “Is that a sink?”

“Don't touch it, you'd end up burning yourself or something. Just help me...” Riku tried to stand, but Sora pressed both hands over his thighs and let his eyebrows climb up his forehead at how little force he needed to keep Riku down.

“Nuh-uh. I need to learn this stuff anyway. Just tell me what to do.”

“Sora, you can't read the symbols on it.”

“So? I can still see them, and if you know how they look... You're making a big deal out of pouring a glass of water. Come on.”

Riku tipped his head back to rest on the back of the chair. “Fine. Put a glass in the middle of the sink – there's a small circle, you'll see – take your hands away, and press the green circle, then the yellow dot.”

Sora grinned, patted Riku's leg, and did as instructed. The hardest part was locating a glass.

Riku drank the water greedily, like he wouldn't have been able to go another second without it. Sora poured him another glass. Ansem re-entered the room just as he was handing it to Riku. He threw a small bag at Sora. It rattled when Sora caught it.

“This should be all the medication you'll need. Riku will know what to take.”

Sora was already opening the bag, but he paused to look at Ansem. “Wait. You're leaving us here?”

Ansem nodded. “As I've mentioned, I need to address a certain issue. Don't worry, you should be safe here.”

“That's not – there could be Dark Ones out there!”

“What?” Riku tugged at Sora's pant leg. “What?”

“Oh, right.” Sora shrugged, helplessly. “Apparently the research team had test subjects, which escaped, and are now dead. Unless we've missed one.”

“'We?'”

“Yeah.” Sora knelt and set the bag on Riku's knees. “Leon gave me a cool mace and – crap, I left it in the Threshold room. Um. Anyway. I also swallowed Relic?”

Riku stared, mouth twitching – he was probably trying to speak and frown and be shocked at the same time.

“Is that so?” Ansem said. Sora turned his head to look at him, and was reassured to see that Ansem's expression held more amusement than anger. “Leon hadn't consulted me on the matter, but I would have agreed with his estimation of your potential, so no harm has been done. Congratulations, Sora, on officially becoming one of us.”

A giddy grin broke over Sora's face. It was nice, to feel like a part of something again. “Thank you, sir. I – I'll do my best to be useful to you.”

“You have already proven your usefulness, Sora.” Ansem was already at the door – a rare double door that required no control panel. Ansem pushed it open. “Relic must already be spreading through your system. You should avoid strenuous activity for the time being, and eat well. Once this... mess is over and Riku has had time to recover, I'm sure he'll be glad to help you adapt to your new abilites.”

“Of course,” Riku said.

“Good. Stay here, both of you. This door can be sealed in case of danger, but not many people come by this section. If you need assistance, Riku will know how to proceed.” And with a last smile, Ansem left the room.

Riku let Sora convince him to lie on a cot in the other room. He mumbled something about cleaning up and blood in his hair, but was out the moment his head hit the pillow. Sora decided not to look for blood in Riku's hair – it was a strange, grey-brown colour at the moment, and there were things in it that Sora preferred not to question. Instead, he pulled another cot – there were six in the room – a little closer and settled into it himself.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter from Sora's perspective, and no Leon or Cloud – which makes me feel a little guilty, funnily enough :) This doesn't mean I'm going to change the plot or anything – after all, I'm writing for fun – I just think it's interesting that giving my readers what they want is apparently so important to me. (The next few chapters are written from Leon and Cloud's POVs, mostly. They still are main characters, I swear.) Feel free to express your genuine opinions in comments, though! I always want to know what you think.
> 
> Life's been extremely hectic recently, so this chapter might not have been edited thoroughly enough. If you notice any mistakes, let me know.


	19. Hole in the wall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm ridiculously busy right now, and this state of affairs will last until next Wednesday. So, enjoy another chapter that I haven't been able to edit properly.

Herding rowdy refugees was easier with a dangerous-looking man at his side, Leon found. He had to resort to lowering the temperature of his immediate surroundings a couple of times, but no one made him actually use Relic for proper offence or defence. So far so good.

Leon kept a close eye on Cloud throughout the ordeal and did his best to stay close. The occasional touch to the arm seemed to be enough to discharge some of Cloud's Relic's pent-up energy. If Leon kept doing it, it would speed up the bonding process, too, so he couldn't complain. It was a small inconvenience.

Cloud winced slightly every time, through. It was the only sign of his discomfort – otherwise, he kept his posture relaxed and frowned disapprovingly at the refugees. Sometimes, he spoke to them in quiet words that made them instantly wary. Perhaps they could recognise the soldier in Cloud. Leon had had the impression that the military was truly feared in Midgar.

They had found Aerith and a couple of her medics in a peripheral medical centre. Some of the medics had been injured, but not too seriously, so Leon had decided to leave them on their own. He had grabbed Aerith and some of the less-traumatised medics and went for the most disorderly group of refugees. His strategy was to break them into smaller groups and contain them in sealed sections of the building. It was effective enough, but time consuming – they had to start at the fringes of the riot and work their way towards its heart. It also required that Leon contain his anger whenever they found a dead or maimed medic or technician.

Only three casualties so far, among the staff. That was acceptable, Leon kept telling himself.

“You could just murder a couple of them to set an example,” Cloud suggested, disinterest plain in his voice.

Leon was pretty certain he didn't mean it, but his own left palm tingled where he wanted to call up a ball of fire and throw it at the crowd before him.

Once Aerith and the medics pulled back, of course. They were in one of the sealed sections, making sure the refugees would receive treatment without turning on the people helping them. The medics, some of whom had been trampled or beaten, did their job without complaint. Aside from dressing wounds and giving out medication, they were also administering sedatives under the guise of vaccination.

“I'd have to do it for every group we corral,” Leon replied.

“So?”

“Saving these people has cost us a lot. It would be counter-productive to kill them.”

Cloud shrugged. “These people clearly do not care. They are doing their damnedest to kill themselves.”

“You do realise they are the very same people you were protecting as a soldier.” Leon looked at Cloud, at his carefully relaxed, restful stance and apparent apathy. Cloud had shown no sign of an emotional reaction to his world being destroyed.

“And I should, what? Care about them?” Cloud huffed softly and lowered his eyes. “I was bred and trained to protect the government, not the people. Since that's obviously gone, I have this new and shiny option to make a choice for myself.”

“And what do you choose?” Leon probably should worry about Cloud's lack of affiliation to anything or anyone, but instead he was glad. He needed Cloud emotionally stable, ready to fight. Motivation might be a problem, of course. Leon would have to figure something out.

“I choose not to give a fuck about these people,” Cloud said. Ge gave Leon a sidelong glance. “The people who have taken it upon themselves to murder aliens seem much more interesting.”

Leon felt his lips twitch into what was probably not a smile, but close enough. “They're not aliens. It's – difficult to explain. I'll get around to it, but for now, you can call them Dark Ones.”

Cloud's eyebrows rose. “Really? Kinda cliché.”

“I'm not the one who came up with it.”

“But you repeat it.”

“For ease of communication, yes.”

“We're done here,” Aerith said, approaching the two of them. She had a grim expression on her face that matched the rest of her appearance: hair pinned up in a tight braid, bloody overalls, a bruise across her cheekbone. “Tidus and Selphie have the body on a stretcher. We can go.”

Leon pushed away from the wall he had been leaning on. “Let's go, then. I'll seal the door.” What he meant was that he would back away and attempt to disarm any refugee who came at him before anyone had to be hurt.

They had done it twelve times before, so it went smoothly. Leon spotted two refugees who looked ready to try something. He send a wave of cold in their direction, startling them, and was able to leave the room in peace. Once the door was sealed shut, Leon allowed himself a sigh of relief.

His tabled buzzed in his pocket. Leon's eyebrows rose when he saw who was on the other end of the call.

“Demyx?”

“Yeah, Leon, hi, there's a – a situation, you might say.”

“I must say there is one, yes. I'm glad you aren't dead.” Leon waved the others to go ahead. Cloud fell into step beside him.

“Dead?” Demyx squeaked. “Why would I be dead?”

“Xemnas' pets escaped – dealt with, don't worry – and the refugees are giving us trouble.”

“Oh. Huh.” Demyx sounded distracted, as if the news of Dark Ones on the loose and resistance from the refugees was the least of his problems right now. “Well, I've got something else for you here.”

Leon pinched the bridge of his nose. “Where's 'here'?”

“You know that unused corridor right under section C?”

That was the lab section they couldn't use, because something was wrong with the systems there and everything from doors to reparation tanks and surveillance cameras malfunctioned in potentially dangerous ways. Leon and Xemnas had had a long talk with the researchers and the rest of the staff about never going there.

“And what are you doing in the last place you're supposed to be, Demyx?”

“Freaking out. I think I know why we're not allowed to come here.”

That sounded worrying. Leon realised that Demyx was all alone in a section of the building where cameras probably didn't work. He remembered the circumstances of Vexen's death.

“Don't move and keep talking. We'll be there in fifteen minutes.”

“'We?'”

“Cloud's up.”

“Oh. Hi, Cloud!” Demyx said brightly. “I'm Demyx.”

Cloud gave the tablet a strange look. “So I gathered.”

“He's not very friendly, is he?” Demyx didn't sound put out by this. In fact, he seemed delighted.

Leon locked his tablet and slid it back into his pocket. “When I said 'keep talking' I didn't mean 'keep trying to engage us in conversation'.”

“That's cold, Leon.”

When neither Leon nor Cloud replied, Demyx sighed and proceeded to prattle about something or other connected to his research. Leon focused on getting to section C as quickly as possible. He directed Aerith and her team to take a break, or maybe check up on injured staff. When they split up, Leon unthinkingly broke into a jog, and only after he'd covered some distance this way did he think about Cloud's condition. When he slowed down, though, Cloud just gave him a questioning look, then bumped Leon's shoulder with a fist, motioning him to speed up. Neither of them was winded.

They arrived at section C, which looked like any other corridor, except darker and more dusty. Demyx was still gushing about some experiment of his. It took Leon calling his name three time before he could be stopped.

“Right. I'm in... Go into lab 6-C, then through the hole in the wall-”

“What?”

“There really is a hole,” said Cloud, having opened the correct door.

Leon blinked at him. “You can't read the symbols.”

“No, but I could hear him talking. Are we going in?”

They entered the lab, then went through the man-sized hole in the wall – in the solid, thick, steel wall. The edges of the hole looked melted, and Leon couldn't tell whether someone – or something – had gotten in or out. He would have to get a technician to take a look at it.

The room beyond had the same configuration as every other three-tank lab, but it was full of dust, which Demyx had undoubtedly raised during is pacing – which was what he was doing still, in a half-circle around the two tanks that were lit. Leon went for those immediately.

“Who's in them?”

Demyx shrugged with a mirthless laugh. “I would like to know that myself. All I've been able to get out of the machines is that whoever's in there, they are young, in long stasis, and have Relic.”

Leon frowned. These tank models had very small windows, barely enough to see the occupants faces. “Are there records in the system?”

“Nope. Only for the last two days. It's set to purge itself twice a week.”

Cloud walked up to one of the tanks and tapped the glass window. “Weird. Made even more weird by the fact I spent days in a similar contraption.”

“You would have died otherwise,” Leon said distractedly. He was trying to get into the system, hoping that Demyx might have overlooked something.

“You were in recovery mode,” Demyx explained. “Long stasis is for, say, surviving a thousand-years-long nuclear winter.”

“Is that what happened in this world?” Cloud asked.

“No, but we've found evidence that the natives were preparing for it.”

“The natives? You mean you're not from here?”

“Nah. We're from many different places. The only one originally from here might be Ansem, our leader, but he won't confirm or deny it.”

“Hmm.”

Leon slid the protective panel back over the touch screen and turned to the other two men. He opened his mouth when, out of the corner of his eyes, he saw movement through the hole in the wall. Leon moved so that Cloud and Demyx would be half a step behind him. “Heads up.”

Cloud breathed in sharply, probably surprised that he hadn't heard anything. That could mean their visitor was a Relic host. Leon steeled himself, preparing for a fight. When Xemnas stepped through the hole, though, Leon found himself at a loss.

“This is very inconvenient,” Xemnas told him.

Leon took a deep breath and released it through his teeth. “Really? This is what you're hiding? A room with two people in stasis?”

Xemnas surveyed the hole and eventually sat down on the lower edge. He rested his elbows on his knees and twined his fingers. “I'm sorry if you're disappointed.”

“Not really.” Leon ran a hand through his hair. “Are you going to explain?”

“Not with Demyx here.” Xemnas smiled. “Forgive me, Demyx, but I can't trust you with delicate information.” His eyes slid to Cloud next. “And hello to you. It's a pleasure to finally meet you.”

Cloud huffed softly, probably in amusement. “It's nice to be able to meet people rather than just float. Don't know about you in particular, though.”

Xemnas nodded. “There'll be time later for social interaction. As long as Leon doesn't decide to attack me, that is.”

Leon needed to sit down. He brought both hands to his face and pressed his fingertips along his brow. “Why would I do that?”

“The circumstances are rather unfortunate for me, wouldn't you say? First the research subjects I'm responsible for escape, and next you find this little secret of mine.”

“Sounds more like someone's out to get you,” Cloud said.

Xemnas shrugged. “Because that's how I put it.”

It was true, and Leon wanted to strangle Xemnas for it. No matter how suspicious all of it was, he didn't think Xemnas had bad intentions. Xemnas was one of the few people in Hollow Bastion Leon both liked and respected. It was possible that he didn't want Xemnas to be guilty of any crime and was interpreting the situation accordingly.

Cloud made a sound of disregard. “No, the way you put it doesn't matter. Whatever you're guilty of, someone wanted to draw attention to it. Or else you're really fucking unlucky.”

“As luck is generally dependent on one's level of preparation...” Xemnas shrugged. He brought his hands to his chin. “I'm faced with a difficult choice because of your unexpected acceptance. Do I let you leave this room or not?”

Leon had had enough. He walked over to Xemnas and put one hand on the wall, on the edge of the hole. He leaned in. “Stop trying to be intimidating and explain. I don't have time for you bullshit.”

Xemnas was looking up at him steadily. “Yes. A lot seems to be happening at once.”

“We've already established that someone's orchestrating this. Now explain your part.”

Xemnas opened his mouth and snapped it shut almost immediately when the alarm went off. He smiled. “Looks like it'll have to wait.”

“Shit.” Leon took a step back, and noticed Cloud coming closer. “This is alarm alpha. Highest priority. Xemnas, move.”

Xemnas nodded and stood. When Demyx approached as well, Xemnas laid a hand on his shoulder. “I'd like Demyx to stay and keep me company.”

Leon, already halfway through the hole, paused to give Xemnas an incredulous look. “You want me to leave Demyx with you as assurance?”

“Yes.”

“Leon,” Demyx said with a barely noticeable tremble to his voice.

Leon clenched his teeth. He didn't have time for negotiations, the alarm was top priority. Xemnas wasn't likely to hurt Demyx. “Fine, he's part of your team anyway.”

Leon was on the other side of the wall before he could meet Demyx's eyes. He waited only as long as it took for Cloud to go through the hole as well, and then they were running.

 


	20. Sizzle

Cloud was finding that his life had taken a turn for the decidedly bizarre, which was saying something – he had lived through an invasion of not-aliens and the fall of his world, after all.

He and Leonhart had run through a seemingly unending maze of badly lit corridors, and it had felt fantastic to stretch his legs, fill his lungs to their capacity and taste exertion with every inhale. There was, of course, the unfamiliar tingling and static under Cloud's skin, but he'd found himself going for longer periods of time without having to touch Leonhart to discharge the tension, and that made him glad. He hated the idea of being so dependent on the man.

At some point during their sprint, they had encountered people – some in uniforms, and some that Cloud had recognised as former citizens of Midgar, still in their native apparel. He had expected to feel something upon seeing them so defeated, chased out of their own world, but all that came had been annoyance at being slowed down.

Just as the alarm had stopped wailing, Cloud and Leonhart had reached a room with a stone frame and a blob of colourful _something_ hanging in the middle of it. People were coming out of the blob. Cloud had stared for a while, and then his attention was caught by a tall man with a ridiculous mess of red hair, hanging over another man's shoulder.

The first man was dirty, smelled of smoke, actually produced smoke, and seemed to be on fire in places. He dripped bright liquid that hissed and steamed when it touched the floor. He was also, perhaps luckily for him, unconscious. The other man was very bulky and obviously had no trouble keeping the other up. And yet he was grimacing, even twitching a little. He carried the other man on his left shoulder, and most of the left side of his body was covered in what appeared to be blue, shimmering crystal. Resembling armour, but only present at the points of contact between the two men.

Leonhart, who had been staring as well, shook himself out of his daze and nudged Cloud back. “You don't go near them. I have no idea what it'd do to your Relic.”

“Right.” Cloud had no desire to move closer. The men radiated waves of heat, which was nearly unbearable even all the way on the other side of the spacious room.

He noticed other people in uniforms identical to those of the burning man and the crystal man. They stood a little to the side and watched warily, except for one, small man, who stood close by the crystal man's free side.

Another man, with long blue hair and dressed in a lab coat, appeared next to Leonhart. “Lexeus. What are you trying to do?” he asked.

“He's trying to do nothing,” said the small man, tilting his head so that his hair covered half of his face. “ _I_ wanted to bring Axel back.”

“Why?”

“Because we don't know enough about Relic, and it's crucial for our cause to find out as much as we can.”

“Zexion,” Leonhart said, steady but not calm. “He's about to go off.”

“Not if I stabilise him.”

“And how do you propose to do that in a way that will be permanent?” asked the blue-haired man.

Leonhart's facial muscles made a series of little twitches. “Are we really considering it?”

The blue-haired man shrugged. “It's true that our knowledge is lacking.”

“Thank you, Saix,” said Zexion. “And to answer your worries, I intend to use the usual stabiliser.”

“Won't that just kill him?” asked Leonhart.

“He's already dead for all intents and purposes – but I don't think so, no.”

“Yes,” hissed Leonhart. “He's already dead, except for the fact that he has yet to explode and kill us all. There's no certainty that the stabiliser won't trigger it.”

Zexion shrugged again. “Trying to bring back him through the Threshold would definitely trigger it. There's really no other option but to do what I suggest.”

Leonhart's fists were clenched so tight they shook. Cloud sympathised. He had no desire to die in an unfamiliar place among unfamiliar people, and for no apparent cause. Still, he had to admit the small man knew how to get what he wanted.

“Get him stabiliser,” Leonhart barked to the room at large.

There were still some Midgardians in the room. All of them jumped and shuffled for the door. A woman in red overalls came forward with a first aid kit. She pulled what looked like a pen out and handed it to Leonhart. He took it, muttered something under his breath, and walked over to the three men in the middle of the room.

“Leon--” Saix started to say, but was interrupted by a burst of heat.

Leonhart cursed and shook off his hand. The pen-like thing skittered along the floor. “Done. Find a place to set him down, Lexeus, before he boils your guts.”

The bulky man nodded gratefully and headed for a door on the other side of the Threshold, followed by Zexion. People scrambled out of their way.

Cloud walked up to Leonhart and grabbed his hand. The skin was raw and already blistered.

“That Axel guy is going to melt through whatever surface they set him on,” Cloud said, raising his eyebrows.

Leonhart pulled his hand away. A wrinkle appeared between his eyebrows, and a moments later the air around him grew cool. Cloud sighed in relief, and watched as the burns on Leonhart's hand healed.

“How are you doing that?”

“Relic. I'll teach you.” Leonhart looked around the room, frown still in place. “Where's Ansem?” he asked no one in particular.

People by the door erupted in a fit of grumbling. A moment later, Sora burst through and skidded to a halt beside Leonhart, doubled over and breathing in sharp gasps. “Sorry. Didn't know how to get here.” He straightened and grinned weakly. “Cloud, hey!”

“Sora.”

Sora made a noise of satisfaction. “I'm glad you're okay. This place has gone crazy.” He patted Cloud's arm awkwardly.

The contact was brief but felt like what Leonhart had been doing, only less effective. Cloud shrugged Sora off.

Sora turned to Leonhart. “Leon. Are the Combatants back? Is Roxas okay? And – has anyone said anything about Axel?”

Leonhart's eyes met Clouds briefly. If he was searching for advice or support, Cloud had none to give.

Leonhart hedged. “They're back, there'll be time to chat later. Sora, have you seen Ansem?”

Sora frowned, likely sensing that he was being evaded. “Yeah. He took me and Riku to an unused infirmary, so that Riku could rest. Oh! Riku wanted me to ask if... anyone's been lost. Other than...”

Leonhart's pointed to where the people in black uniforms stood, talking in hushed voices. “They seem mostly fine to me. Where's this infirmary and where did Ansem go after leaving you there.”

“Oh.” Sora searched the cluster of Combatants. His shoulders slumped. “I dunno. He said he had something to do and just left.”

“I see.” Leonhart pulled out his tablet.

Cloud considered social norms and rules for about half a second before he decided he didn't care. He rested a hand on Leonhart's shoulder and set his chin on top of it. Leonhart gave no sign of being bothered by the proximity.

“Who's this Ansem?”

“The leader of our organisation. You've heard of him.”

“Maybe. Didn't pay attention.”

“That's a lie. You're a soldier in an unfamiliar environment, of course you're paying attention.”

Cloud said nothing, just watched with mild interest as Leonhart channel-surfed on what appeared to be the security footage. Many very similar corridors and uniformly furnished rooms, but not much else showed up.

“Why do you need Ansem?” Sora asked. He seemed subdued.

Leonhart tensed before answering. Cloud filled it away for later. “We need to hold a strategy meeting, count the casualties, and address the people. Other than that, I just want to know he's safe so I'll be able to focus on getting this place back in order. And preparing Cloud for active duty.”

Cloud brightened. He was feeling claustrophobic after such a long time in the tank. “I'm definitely up for that.”

“Soon as this disaster is dealt with. We've suffered serious blow.” Leonhart sighed and slipped the tablet back into his pocket. “We'll need all the manpower we can get.”

Cloud pulled away to the respectable distance of a step. “Haven't found Ansem?”

“No.” Leonhart messed up his hair again. “Sora, you'll have to take us to that lab, and we'll try to search from there. In the meantime – where's Cid?” Leonhart raised his voice for the last part, turning a couple of heads.

“He took Yuffie to the infirmary, I believe, sir,” responded a man in blue overalls.

Leonhart's facial muscles tensed for a second before he could force them to relax. “Was Yuffie injured?”

“I suppose so, sir, or else she'd have come here looking for you.”

Leonhart closed his eyes for a moment. “All right. Cid can take care of it. Saix!” The blue-haired man, who had been busy shouting orders in the background, turned his head towards Leonhart. “I'm going to look for Ansem.”

Saix nodded. “Do that. We need him to talk to the refugees as soon as possible.”

“Can you arrange for someone else to do it if I can't find Ansem soon enough?”

“Of course. Should I write the speech for you?”

Leonhart scowled. “Whatever. Get in touch with Xemnas and remind him he's responsible for most of this mess.”

Saix waved Leonhart away, and Leonhart gestured for Cloud and Sora to move. “Get going. This is actually a crisis.”

Sora laughed shakily. “Let's hope I can find the lab.”

*

Riku stumbled into the wall. Again. It was possible that getting up had not been the best idea, but Sora had left and Riku hadn't wanted to lie about when everyone else was running around dealing with the mess. Riku also hadn't and still didn't want to think about certain things that had happened recently. Getting up had turned out to be a fantastic solution – he was too busy struggling with the random bursts of information from Relic to think at all.

It kept giving him these flashes of feeling – the texture of the floor under Riku's boots, the amount of gunk in his hair, the humidity of the air in the immediate area. It was very disorienting. Riku especially didn't need to know how dirty he was and from how many places he was bleeding.

He smelled blood and for a moment thought Relic was reminding him _again_ – but then he realised it was the smell of the tiny bloodstains on the floor. Riku squinted at them and continues to slide along the wall – which was the easiest way to stay upright – careful not to lose sight or smell of the trail.

Blood in the corridors wasn't that unusual these days, but Riku liked the opportunity to focus on something other than his various aches and the thoughts he wasn't thinking.

The bloodstains got fresher the further Riku got, until finally he reached their source: Ansem the Wise, slumped against a door, bleeding from a gash on his head.

“What,” was all Riku could manage to squeeze though his throat and wrangle around his numb tongue.

Ansem looked up at him. He was very pale. “Ah, Riku. I... ran into some of our guests. They lost control of their tempers.”

Riku frowned and proceeded to crouch next to Ansem. It took a while, but he still hadn't managed to wrap his head around the situation when he was as far down as he wanted to go. “Why would you be attacked by the refugees?”

“They would have attacked any one of us, I believe.”

“No. I meant.” Riku put a hand to his head. He didn't like vertigo very much. “Why were you where the refugees were?”

“Ah. I was attempting to reach a certain place.” Ansem got himself up on his knees and put a steadying hand on Riku's shoulder. “Riku? You shouldn't be walking around. Where is Sora?”

“He went to see what the alarm was about.”

“Ah yes, the alarm. I would very much like to find out what caused it, as well.”

Riku gave Ansem a critical once-over. “I don't think you should be walking about, either.”

Ansem sighed. “No, you are right, I shouldn't.”

It was a problem. Riku turned his back to the wall and sat. “Do you want to wait until someone finds us?”

A tight little smile appeared on Ansem's lips. “That depends on who would be the one to find us.”

“You're right.” Riku nodded, and regretted it a moment later when pain ricocheted through his skull. He moaned. “But I'm not getting up.”

Ansem touched two fingers to the gash on his temple and winced. “Neither am I.”

“All right then,” Riku decided. “This is a good piece of wall to rest against.”

“So it is.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Recent health-related issued have made me glad that I have a number of buffer chapters for this fic. I'd be in a panic otherwise. My writing schedule is all out of whack.  
> Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. There's one main surprise in it, a result of my inability to just kill off characters and be done. I always think of more uses for them and more ways to torment them.


	21. Strategy meeting

Leon wanted to strangle Ansem, he really did. Sadly, Ansem was already bleeding and a little out of it, so cutting off his air supply would probably not benefit anyone. Still. Leon was allowed to have a violent fantasy or two.

They had found Ansem and Riku easily – Ansem had sat right under a working camera, and Leon was _not_ going to question the fact that Ansem knew the camera's exact angle and scope, not yet – and transported them to the nearest infirmary, which happened to be the one in which Cloud had spent most of his time in Hollow Bastion. Then they had called Aerith.

“You are saying I should just pretend the Initiative is not divided?” Xemnas asked. He had been waiting for them in the lab, apparently unruffled. He hadn't said a word about Demyx.

Ansem, who was sitting up in bed and smiling Aerith's way every now and then, as if that would make her gentler as she worked on his stitches, frowned, and promptly winced. “You put words in my mouth.”

Aerith hissed something under her breath and shot Xemnas a scowl.

Xemnas crossed his arms. “It is what your strategy would amount to. We cannot allow the organisation to crumble.”

“From what I understand, it is the researchers who are under suspicion.”

“And what would you like me to do about it? All of them are brilliant scientists whose loss would be a terrible blow. We might not recover from that.”

“Do we even have enough working tanks to put more than one person in stasis?” Leon asked. When he received no answer, he sighed and ran both hands through his hair. This whole situation was ridiculous – and ridiculously dangerous. “We need to find out whether we're dealing with opportunists or and organised effort, but we can't do it in the middle of an evacuation. I suggest we send the researchers with the refugees as escorts.”

Xemnas scoffed. “That would be the same as telling them outright that we're watching their every move.”

“Perhaps, but it would force them to postpone their plans, whatever those might be.”

“Or to speed them up,” Cloud piped in. He had been looking around the lab, picking up random things and setting them back down. Now he was considering his sword.

Leon wasn't going to argue, because it was true. The outcome depended on how far into their plans the troublemakers had advanced.

Sora, who was perched on the edge of Riku's cot with his hands clasped over the back of his neck, elbows drawn in to frame his face and shoulders hunched, said, in the direction of the floor, “you can't just take a raincheck on saving humanity to solve this.”

“Of course we can't,” Leon said.

“And the researchers make the majority of Combatants, right?”

“True. But some are on our side.” Leon gestured towards Xemnas. He didn't trust the man completely, but he was certain that Xemnas would do anything in his power to defeat the Dark Ones.

Sora shook his head. “He's on his own side, just as everyone else here, except Ansem.” He raised his eyes, and there was a strange bleakness in them that made him appear older than he was. “You should find out what the culprits want and give it to them. You don't have the resources to lock them up – or worse, fight them.”

“Smart kid,” Cloud commented. He shrugged at Leon's glare. “It's all true, isn't it?”

“We can't surrender our principles,” Ansem said firmly. “I will not reason with a murderer.”

Leon hated to admit it, but Cloud and Sora were right. Take any of the researcher teams out of the picture, and they would be chin-deep in trouble. That realisation made him think about Axel, and Leon almost smiled. Their just might be saved from making hard decisions if Axel spontaneously combusted and killed them all.

“Sora means we should work together regardless of what happens,” Riku said, not raising his head from the pillow. “He's both right and not. If Vexen really was murdered--”

“He came for a check-up three days before his death,” said Aerith. She sounded tense, which was very unusual for her. “There was nothing wrong with him. Relic hosts don't just fall over.”

Xemnas nodded thoughtfully. “There's actually very few ways in which one can kill a Relic host without triggering an overload. Not many people know them, and fewer still would be able to use them.”

“Does that mean we're walking time bombs?” Cloud asked, frowning. He didn't seem upset, just deep in thought. “You said that fiery guy could kill everyone here.”

“Basically, yes.”

They fell silent. Leon stood in the middle of the room and felt as if everyone else was at a great distance. The weight of their situation fell around him, stifling, obscuring visions of any possible future. He didn't think he would ever be able to shake it off.

“Anyway,” said Xemans brightly and slapped his knees. He rolled his swivel chair up to Ansem's bed, on the side unoccupied by Aerith. “We need to talk about the kids in the basement, dear.”

Ansem's eyes widened. “They've been discovered?”

“You knew about them?” Leon asked, keeping his voice even.

“I knew you were keeping things from us!” Riku exclaimed.

“Ansem?” Aerith prompted. Her hands stilled over Ansem's head, a roll of bandage stretched between them.

Ansem took a deep breath and released it slowly. He ignored the shocked reactions. “I don't know what you want of me, Xemnas. They are there on your request.”

“I thought we might move them.” Xemnas' smile was pleasant, but his eyes were anything but. “Or try to wake them up.”

“No.” Ansem shook his head sharply, prompting a grumble from Aerith. “There is still a chance we can recreate Relic with their samples. A little more time, Xemnas. It won't change anything for them.”

“That's right, it won't,” Xemnas said, and there was no sign of placidity in his tone now. “They will wake up to a dead world and a dying universe, anyway, but at least they will get the chance to fight.”

“Do you truly want that for them? They are but children.”

“They are warriors.” Xemnas stood. Leon watched him carefully. “And they would prefer death in battle to sleeping through the apocalypse.”

“No,” Ansem repeated. “A little more time. You know how far you've come with your research.”

Xemnas looked like he very much wanted to argue, but couldn't. He took a breath, and released the tension in his muscles with the exhale. “I know. It's necessary. But for how much longer?”

Ansem couldn't hold his gaze. “I wish I knew the answer.”

“You're going to explain all of that to me,” whispered Cloud, who was suddenly standing right behind Leon.

Leon felt Cloud's knuckles brush against his, and swallowed a sigh. The atypical progress of Cloud's Relic added to his worries.

He addressed the room at large, “let's come up with a temporary plan for – Ansem?”

Ansem had sat up to assist Aerith in wrapping his head, but now he was slumping in his seat. A drop of blood fell from his nose onto the white bed covers.

Leon cursed. He and Xemnas were by the bed in an instant.

“He's unconscious,” Aerith said. She tapped the small tablet at her hip without looking. “I need to get him to one of the main infirmaries, this one isn't equipped--” She paused, took a long breath. “It's a head injury. Be prepared for the worst.”

Leon clenched his fists. Unclenched them on an exhale. “We'll escort you. Until Ansem wakes up, I suggest we take decisions by council.”

“Fine,” said Xemnas. He was in no mood to argue now. “Only the most senior operatives – I'll speak for the research team, you for the Observers, Aerith for the medics, and Cid for the technicians. Marluxia and Larxene are the only Combatants left. They get no voice.”

“Fine,” Leon replied. “My immediate plan of action is to pacify the refugees. And we need to send someone to Traverse Town, see if they can take some of the people. Others Observers will go to Agrabah and the Land of Dragons.”

“You want to split them up?” Aerith asked, still bent over Ansem.

“If we sent them all to one place, they might riot. A riot of off-world refugees will be dealt with swiftly and brutally.”

Xemnas hummed, nodding. “It's a plan. Calm things down here – 12-hour deadline, say?”

Leon considered their resources. “I'll handle Traverse Town. For the other worlds – Xigbar can handle himself, but Demyx might need help. Let them know they are to leave within 8 hours – the earlier, the better. I need to deal with the refugees and Zexion. And you.”

Xemnas smiled a twisted little smile. “I can't wait.”

“How can I help?” Riku asked, pushing himself into a sitting position. Sora looked about to push him back down, but hesitated. Riku kept flinching whenever he came in contact with anything. His Relic was acting up for a worryingly long time.

“You can lie down if you don't want me to tie you to the bed,” Aerith said.

“You won't do that, and I'm going to help.” Riku swung his legs off the bed and stood slowly, keeping a hand on the mattress for balance. He swayed, and Sora moved in to intercept him, but Riku managed to stay upright. “See? I can even stand.”

Leon banished all thoughts of worry and considered Riku's condition critically. “Riku, how familiar are you with our systems?”

Riku's raised both eyebrows. “I've had some fun with them. Hollow Bastion OS is both clunky and ingenious. I can probably do whatever you ask me to do.”

A fresh perspective might be just what they needed. “I want you in the surveillance room checking for traces of recent visitors.”

Riku grimaced. “Someone's been messing with it?”

“I think all they did was turn the cameras on and off. You'll find out if there was more.”

“You bet I will.” Riku started for the door, staggered, and grabbed Sora to stay on his feet. “Okay. Someone get me there, then.”

“Sora will go with you. Now that he's a host, you can try to teach him something useful.”

“Sure. I'll get right on it,” Riku grumbled.

Sora snorted. “Wow, you sound so excited.”

“Shut up. I'm too tired to think straight.”

Sora opened his mouth to respond, but Leon talked over him. “All present know where to go? Good.” There was a commotion at the door and a team of medics walked in, hesitant at seeing the gathering of senior staff. “Good. Let's get started.”

*

“All right,” Riku said, though his eyes stayed glued to the screen and his fingers tapped at two keyboards at once. “First of all, do you realise you've been communicating with most of us through Relic's very advanced interpretation system?”

Sora sat cross legged on a swivel chair next to Riku, trying to follow what was happening on the screen. He shrugged. “Nope.”

Riku sighed “Relic allows us to communicate telepathically, sort of, though its range is very limited and it usually requires visual contact. So all this time I've been talking to you, I was actually thinking right into your brain, and the sounds coming out of my mouth were in a language you don't know.”

“Right.”

“The only people you've talked to that weren't Relic hosts were from your world.”

Sora nodded, then did a double take. “Wait, what?”

“We have several of your countrymen here. We had more and there is a story behind it – but it's for another time, okay?”

Sora chewed on his lip. “Yeah, okay. But promise to actually talk about it later.”

“Sure.” Riku jerked as another echo of sensation washed over him. There was a downside to sitting in a room full of electronic equipment in his condition. He sighed, and deleted what his spasming fingers had seen fit to type. He paused. The string of symbols gave him a new idea. “Hold on.”

Riku proceeded to test his theory and, sure enough, he found the bug someone had planted. It was very simplistic, but also lightweight and almost impossible to detect. Now that Riku knew about it, though, removing it was a matter of minutes.

“Strange,” Riku said, not pausing in his work. “Someone had written it right into the code – the code of the cameras' drivers, which is – well, weird. Takes time. It had to be someone who could sit here for at least an hour without raising suspicion. Or the person who wrote the drivers in the first place. Or had to fix them at some point. So maybe the list of possible culprits is not that short. Ah-ha, here we go.” Riku paused to read the code again, then rebooted the system. All the cameras went back online.

Sora yelped and almost fell out of his chair.

Riku cursed, scrambling for his tablet, eyes glued to the screen.

He had pulled up the view of one of the previously disabled cameras. In one corner, only just within the camera's range, the wall and floor had been painted red.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That feeling when I have to fact check my own fanfic, because I keep forgetting which bit of information is revealed when, and to whom.


	22. Stains

“I'm a little tied up right now, Riku,” Leonhart said. His tablet was still in his pocket, but apparently the thing could pick up a person's voice and filter out most of the background noise. Clever device. Cloud's unit could have used a few during their attempt to defend Midgar from the not-alien invasion.

“I can hear that,” said Riku. “But this might be important and very, very urgent.”

Cloud looked at the angry people in front of him, then at Leonhart. He pressed a hand to his shoulder where his wound would not stop itching, despite the herbal-scented salve Aerith had spread all over it. Cloud didn't need to be in top form to deal with half a dozen confused civilians, but it was a rather annoying distraction.

They were in a bit of a stand-off. Leonhart wanted to lock the refugees in a room. The refugees refused to go inside. Cloud had faced similar situations during the early stages of his military career.

“You can go,” he told Leonhart. “I should be able to handle these guys without spilling too much blood.”

Leonhart gave him a look. “No.”

“It sounds important.”

“It is pretty important,” confirmed Riku.

Leonhart sighed and pushed in front of Cloud. He kept two fingers pressed to Cloud's forearm. There was a sound like a distant clap of thunder. Cloud's ears popped. The six refugees crumpled to the ground.

“What did you just...?”

Leonhart pulled the tablet out of his pocket. “Temperature and pressure, I'll explain later. Riku?”

“I'm sending you visuals.”

Leonhart stared at the screen for a while. He cursed. “Where is it?”

“Block A, the medical section. Right next to room 12-A.”

Cloud needed to get his hands on the floor plans. He hated running around a completely unfamiliar environment.

“You stay where you are,” Leonhart told Riku. “And inform Aerith that a medic team is required in sector 005.”

There was a pause. “What have you done to the refugees?”

“Nothing they won't recover from. And Riku? Give the staff the go-ahead to arm themselves. We're looking at a lot of hostile groups here. The new arrivals must have noticed the tension in the air.”

Leonhart glanced at Cloud, conflict clear in his eyes. Cloud stared back. If Leonhart wanted reassurance, he would be disappointed.

“Are you crazy?” Riku asked. “That's going to send them into a panic. We'll have an actual riot on our hands.”

“We already do, it's just disorganised.” Leonhart sighed and gave Cloud another quick glance. “It's an order, Riku. I'll go check out the blood. Contact me only when necessary.”

Cloud raised both eyebrows and tilted his head. Blood. So many interesting things were happening at once.

*

Riku was typing furiously on both keyboards. There was hair in his face, and he still looked seconds away from fainting. Sora didn't like this one bit.

“What are you doing now?”

Riku didn't even spare him a glance. “Locating every staff member to keep an eye on them. Leon said it's a crisis, after all. Ugh.”

Sora rolled his chair closer to look over Riku's shoulder. Nothing seemed amiss. “What?”

“The researchers. I get it that they are busy, but they should be – _what the fuck?_ ” The last part was a scandalised hiss.

“What?”

“They have Axel. Right there.” Riku pointed at the part of the screen at which he was staring. “He should be dead.”

“Oh.” Axel was stretched out on a metal table, twisting and twitching like he was in a lot of pain. The image was distorted and the angle didn't help, but Sora thought he could see smoke. “That's... good, right? That he's not dead?”

“I have no idea.” Riku's voice lacked expression. His hands had stilled. “I have no idea what's going on any more.”

*

There was a lot of blood, Cloud had to admit. It covered the floor from wall to wall, and had splashed one of said walls rather thoroughly. It stank, but was almost dry.

“Losing this amount of blood would kill a regular-sized man,” Cloud said blandly. He scuffed his shoe at a part of the stain. “But someone must have brought it here in a bucket.” There were no more splashes going either way down the corridor. A person didn't just drop all their blood in one spot and leave without a trace.

Leonhart held out his hand, milimetres above the dried blood. “No Relic. That's good news, I suppose.”

“Wouldn't someone with Relic be more likely to heal?”

“I'm not sure even I would recover from bleeding to death, Strife.”

Cloud frowned. “'Even you'? You mean you're harder to kill than the rest of them, somehow?”

“In a sense. I'll-”

“Let me guess,” Cloud cut in. “You'll explain later.”

Leonhart glared as he rose to his feet, but there was no heat in it. “If you want to complain, go to the people who keep bleeding all over my schedule. You're one of them, actually.”

Cloud shrugged, unrepentant. It wasn't like he could have helped being attacked. He didn't mind the outburst, either. Leonhart was well overdue for a cathartic outburst.

Leonhart's tablet buzzed. He pulled it out of his pocket to look at the screen, as if he didn't know who was calling. “Yeah?”

“I've checked the surveillance and whatever happened, happened before I fixed it. Also, would you like to tell me what the fuck is up with Axel?”

Leonhart pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. “Certainly. Give yourself an appointment once we've dealt with the multiple mysterious accidents, the riots, and--”

“Okay, okay,” Riku said, voice softer than before. “I'll send you a team. Should be there in four minutes.”

“Armed?”

“Armed.”

“Good.” Leonhart dropped his hand with a sigh. “What are Xemnas and Saix doing?”

“Coordinating the medics and the technicians, last I checked.”

Leonhart looked surprised. “Good. Are all hosts accounted for?”

“I can't find Demyx--”

“That's fine, Xemnas put him somewhere safe.”

Riku made unhappy noises. “Great. Everyone else is up and about and helping. Oh. Huh. Xaldin seems to be having trouble.”

Lenhart's shoulders slumped before he straightened them again. “Give me directions.”

*

Xaldin kept a hand pressed to his side, just under his ribs. There was red between his fingers. He was still shouting orders and herding refugees with his dancing spears. Leon didn't have the energy to check whether Xaldin was using mirages, or if his weapons had physical form.

“Why are you bleeding?” he asked. He sent a blasts of cold in an attempt to push the refugees where he wanted them. Surprisingly, they backed off.

“No real reason,” Xaldin said darkly. “I have always enjoyed fresh air between my ribs.”

Cloud stood beside Leon, hands in his pockets. His eyes raked over the grumbling refugees, carefully casual. His skin was a bit clammy.

“All right,” Leon said, wrapped a hand around Cloud's bicep and sent a pulse of warmth into him. Cloud sighed gratefully. “It's time for you to practise using Relic.”

“Oh?” Cloud's eyes lit up with interest.

“You'll help Xaldin out.”

“You want him to practice on people?” Xaldin asked, voice coloured with both doubt and amusement.

Leon shrugged. “If he knocks them around a bit, well, they deserve it.”

“True enough.”

“What you want to do,” Leon said, picking up Cloud's arm and pointing it at a group of visibly worried refugees, “is create whatever kind of energy comes easiest and keep it in your fingertips. Don't think about it too hard. Relic will do most of the work for you.”

“Right.” Cloud kept his muscles relaxed, though he shouldn't know he was supposed to do so. After a moment, the air around his hand sparked and cracked.

“Electricity, hmm?” Xaldin sounded interested. “You got yourself a talented partner, Leon. He barely needs instruction.”

It was true. Cloud flexed his fingers, dispelling the sparks. Then he clenched them around the hilt of a blade that formed in a flash of lightning, stretching into a sword very similar to the one Cloud had left behind in the lab. Little bolts of electricity danced along the blade. Cloud gave it an experimental swing, dislodging Leon's grip.

“You can control its weight,” Leon said. “At any moment in time. You can even loosen it up enough that it will go through solid objects – and still cut them, if that's your intention.”

Cloud's eyes were very wide. There was even a hint of a flush in his cheeks. “This,” he said slowly, “is perfect.”

He performed a series of slashes, going through moves that were obviously well-practised. He was a marvellous fighter, Leon had to admit: light on his feet, balanced, calm under pressure. Leon couldn't ask for more in a partner, except perhaps a less closed-off personality – though that would be hypocritical.

Cloud was quickly attracting the refugees' attention. A hush went through them at the sight of a man swinging a very large sword as if it weighted nothing. Leon tore his eyes away from Cloud and turned his attention to herding the people. He chose to let Cloud have fun for a bit. The man needed to familiarise himself with Relic as soon as possible.

*

Riku was staring very intently at the screen and occasionally twitching his fingers over the keyboards. He seemed to be getting more tense by the second. Sora worried he might start vibrating.

He laid a hand on Riku's shoulder, careful to keep the touch light. “Riku, I think you should take a break. You're exhausted.”

“Watch the screen, not me.” Riku's voice was calm but tense.

Sora did as told and frowned. Nothing caught his attention. Riku kept the images from each camera so small and cramped so tightly on the screen that Sora doubted he could see much himself. “What am I looking at?”

A few taps at the keyboard, and two images were stretched across the screen. Sora squinted. There was a fairly large group of refugees. Larger than Leon would have allowed. In the immediate view of the cameras, two men were carrying a small person – a girl, or a child. Sora leaned closer, and gasped. It was a girl. One he recognised.

“Yuffie,” Sora breathed.

“Correct.” Riku was already swiping at his tablet. Whoever he was calling picked up. “Leon, crisis.”

There was a long sigh. “Again?”

“Yes. They have Yuffie.”

“Who has Yuffie?” Leon's voice was particularly suited to conveying displeasure without losing its dullness.

“The refugees. Fuck.” Riku's fingers blurred over the tablet. “I'm sending you visuals. It's – it looks bad.”

Sora fought the urge to hold his breath as Leon received the images.

There was a barely audible curse. “I'm on my way. Contact Aerith and get the technicians to prepare a lockdown. This has gone far enough.”

Riku nodded, typing with one hand, eyes flitting between the screens. “What's the plan?”

“We get Yuffie, by whatever means necessary, then blast the alarms and sprinkle the rioters until they calm the fuck down.”

“Really?” Riku grimaced. “You're going to punish them with water?”

“I don't give a damn about punishment. All I need is to confuse and scare them, force them apart, then offer safety. I'm going with the gentlest option first.” Leon's breath was coming in measured huffs. He was probably running. “Don't question me, Riku. Just do your job.”

“What about me?” Sora piped in, standing so abruptly that his chair clattered to the ground. “I want to help.”

Leon grunted. “Fine. Meet with Aerith's team. And don't do anything stupid. You lose control over Relic and we'll be scraping the refugees off the walls.”

Sora winced at the mental image. He'd had enough of his people's antics, but they didn't deserve to be splattered. It would be fine. Sora doubted the situation would escalate beyond the sprinklers.

“Got it. I'm on my way.” Sora paused at the door to give Riku a stern look. “You stay put, all right? Seal the door and don't open it for strangers.”

Riku rolled his eyes. “Thank you, Sora, for your invaluable advice. Now shoo, I have a rescue mission to coordinate.”

Sora grinned, feeling fond, and slipped out of the surveillance centre. He broke into a run the moment the door closed behind him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, editing this chapter was a struggle. I'm still not entirely happy with it, but it'll have to do for now. I'm in a bit of a creative slump and can't seem to snap out of it, but fear not, I'm determined to keep this fic going for a long while yet.


	23. Diplomacy

Leonhart smiled – a barely there twitch at the corners of his mouth – as he held a man up above the ground with one hand twisted into the man's collar. Cloud was duly impressed.

“We are a little pressed for time,” Leonhart said. “Which is why I will not hesitate to use any measures to get your compliance. Do you understand?”

“Y-yes. Yes!” The man didn't struggle. He had both hands wrapped around Leonhart's wrist, but he kept his legs limp and just stared.

“Good,” Leonhart purred. “You are a smart guy, so I'll make you my envoy. You are going to go in there and politely ask your friends to release the girl.”

The refugees had somehow secured themselves in the cafeteria – they even piled the tables and chairs into barricades. Their ranks were made up mostly of teenagers and adults, both men and women with crazed eyes and dirt-streaked faces. Riku had reported the presence of a few older people. No children.

The man nodded vigorously. “Yes, a-all right.”

He kept glancing at Cloud, but he couldn't have recognised Cloud for a soldier. Out of uniform, with no trace of mako left in his eyes – Cloud had checked the first time he encountered a mirror – the only thing that could betray him was his sword, and now he had the option to go about without a weapon and still never be unarmed. As long as he didn't start barking commands, Cloud was a mystery to his own people. It was somewhat liberating.

Leonhart set the man down, gently. “Fantastic. Go.”

The man went, though hesitantly. Cloud wondered what he was so afraid of.

*

Sora ran, fuelled by excitement, and did not notice the hush in the corridors. He only noticed something was off because he saw a rope made of rags stretched like a tripwire where two corridors intersected. Sora managed to skid to a halt before it, wheeling his arms for balance. He looked left and right. Six sets of eyes stared back.

“Uh, hello,” Sora said, backing away half a step from the intersection. If they were going to come at him, he'd rather not let them flank him. The two groups of refugees came together. Sora cheered internally. “That wasn't a great plan, you know.”

“See? I told you no one would fall for it,” said a very pretty, dark-haired woman. She was the only woman in the group, in fact. Sora admired her sculpted arms and abdomen. She wore a sleeveless top that could probably pass for a sports bra.

“Who cares. It stopped him running right past,” said a man. He grinned at Sora. “'Ey there, boy. I think we're gonna be friends.”

Sora took another step back, tilting his head in thought. He wished he hadn't forgotten the mace. “I'm one of you, you know,” he tried.

“You're not dressed like us.”

“Because I was here first. I've had time to--”

“To decide you liked being on the side of the powerful people,” the man spat.

“You would do the same if you were alone in a place like this,” said another man soothingly. He was very thin and pale, and he breathed with some difficulty.

Sora frowned. “Sir, are you sick? Have you been hurt?”

The man startled. “No, no! I'm quite well – just tired.”

“I think you should make sure. Maybe you hit your head, or got something important bruised?”

“I'm quite certain that I'm fine.” The man was growing irritated now. He stood. The others followed suit. “Now, boy, let's talk about how you can help us.”

Sora brightened. “Sure! I could take you to a medic, for one, and--”

“No!” The man took a steadying breath. “We want food and weapons. Or a way out of here, if you know it.”

Sora considered his options. There were only six of them, tired and likely sick. He could outrun them easily, but he might get lost and stumble upon an even larger group. If he stayed and a fight broke out, Sora would have to bring one of them down quickly, and the rest might spook. Or they might not, and without the mace, Sora would be done for.

He wondered if Riku was watching. He probably was, and would be sending help soon.

“Why would you want to go outside?” Sora asked, stalling. “There's nothing but a lot of dry dirt and some bushes.”

The group exchanged glances. The thin man, apparently their representative, said, “you've been outside, then? You know how to get there?”

Sora laughed sheepishly. “Not really. I get so lost in this place. Besides, it's really nicer inside the building.”

“I don't care for 'nice'!” shouted the woman, slamming her fist into the wall. Surprisingly, she left no dent. “I just don't want to be a prisoner!”

These people were either handled badly by the medics, rightly paranoid, or both. Sora wondered when his backup would arrive. “You're not prisoners. You're only here temporarily, anyway. Wait a couple of days and you'll see.”

“And in those couple of days your colour-coded friends will feed me whatever drugs they want to keep me docile! I don't think so!”

That wasn't a bad idea at all, Sora reflected. Shame no one had thought of it. “Look, fine. I'll take you outside so you can witness the magnificence of a really empty desert, all right?”

They grumbled and whispered, clearly distrustful. Sora wondered what to do. His initial intention was to herd them in a room and lock it, but he was starting to think there would be no harm in showing them a bit of sky and a lot of dirt.

Except he was supposed to be somewhere. Sora stared accusingly at where he thought a camera might be, and led the way to where he hoped the entrance hangar area was.

*

The envoy returned, accompanied by two men. One had a mop of red hair and a ridiculous ponytail, and the other one was bald. Both wore crumpled, dust-covered suits, and fake grins.

“Hi,” said the redhead. “I'm Reno, my friend is Rude. We've volunteered to be the delegation.”

Leonhart was unimpressed. “Why?”

“Because that girl they've made hostage? She helped us get the fuck out of a world overrun with aliens. We owe her.”

“I don't know if--” Leonhart's tablet buzzed. He answered the call with a sigh. “Yes, Riku?”

“These guys are cool,” said Riku's voice. “They were helping out the medics during the evac. You can sort of trust them.”

Reno blinked. “Uh, thanks? Whoever you are?”

Cloud touched Leonhart's shoulder with his own, frowning. “I don't know about this. They look like turks.”

Reno gaped. “Hey! How do you know that!”

“Because I'm a soldier.” Cloud watched as the man's face became completely blank. He would never tell anyone, but he enjoyed having that effect on people. On occasion. “And now that you've confirmed my suspicions, I trust you even less.”

The two turks exchanged glances. Reno raised his hands in surrender and turned to Leonhart. “Look, man, you should... carefully consider what your soldier friend says, okay? They are made to act and think like machines. You can't expect them to, uh, pick up certain nuances.”

Cloud was surprised at the spike of annoyance he felt at those words. He'd stopped paying attention to this kind of talk a long time ago. He probed the emotion, and came to the conclusion that he didn't want to lose Leonhart's trust. Or a chance at gaining his trust, at least. Highly unusual. Cloud had only ever trusted his fellow soldiers to do their job, and expected only the same trust in return.

“Machines, hm? He is a bit robot-like,” Leonhart said. Cloud detected a hint of humour in his voice. “But trust is a big word to throw around. How can you two help us?”

“We can mediate, and the people might be a little wary of us.” Reno shrugged. “But then, you have a soldier on your side. He'd be the only familiar voice of authority, if you want to use him.”

It wasn't the worst plan Cloud had ever heard. The main difficulty was getting the girl out unharmed. The refugees themselves could be dealt with with simple violence.

“Uniform's probably in tatters,” Cloud said.

“Ugh. Just wear something black and make your eyes glow,” Reno said.

“Can't.”

“You probably could.” Leonhart turned Cloud by the shoulder and put a hand to the side of his face, fingertips pressed to the line of Cloud's brow and just under his eye. “Remember the feeling from before, when you used Relic? Try to focus it where my fingers touch.” He paused. “Just don't fry your eye.”

“Helpful.” Cloud closed his eyes. “Might as well if I'm going to blind myself with bright light.”

“Good point.”

It was easy to make his face tingle, but pushing the energy to the areas of contact between him and Leonhart took quite a bit of concentration. Cloud imagined bright blue light tearing through the skin of his cheeks, and moving where he wanted it.

Leonhart's hand twitched. “Ah. You could have warned me.”

Cloud almost smiled. “If I knew when it was going to happen, sure.” He turned to the turks. “Good enough?”

“Whoa, tone it down, man!”

Cloud did.

“Okay, yeah, it'll do.” Reno made a clucking sound. “Except you can't see shit.”

Cloud's arm shot out, fingers wrapping loosely around Reno's throat. “Not a problem.” Cloud dispelled the glow and opened his eyes to take in Reno's expression. “I still can't fake the uniform.”

“We'll find something for you,” Leonhart said, resting his hand on Cloud's shoulder. The unpleasant tingling under Cloud's skin gathered there, then it was gone. “Now tell me what the refugees want.”

The man Leon had threatened, now stuck between the two turks and looking very uncomfortable because of it, raised his head. “We want to be released from this prison and allowed outside, first and foremost.”

Leonhart's eyebrows rose. “It's 'we' now, is it?”

The man lifted his chin. “It is. I am an ambassador of my people.”

Cloud couldn't have stopped the snort if he'd wanted to. “You're not very smart, are you?”

“What?”

“After that little display, glowing eyes and all, they can't exactly let us go back in there and report on what we've seen,” Reno drawled. “My money is on one of us going back, and two staying as hostages – I mean, to continue negotiations.”

“And since you seem to enjoy talking so much, you can be the one to carry the message,” Leonhart told him.

Reno turned to his partner to pat his shoulder reassuringly. “Don't worry, man. If they were bad guys they'd have used poisonous gas by now.”

“It's still an option,” Leonhart muttered under his breath. Cloud was fairly sure everyone had heard him.

*

Riku was not irresponsible. He had done what he was supposed to do, contacted everyone concerned and relayed the orders. He had even locked the door to the control room as he left so that no refugees could stumble inside.

He had left Yuffie to die once already, and it had been one time too many. There was no way Riku would sit on his ass and watch as Yuffie got dragged about, limp as a rag doll. They were friends, and she had helped him out many times. Riku liked to pay his debts.

So here he was, shuffling towards the cafeteria-turned-combat zone, armed with a tablet. He hoped Leon wouldn't call.

Approximately a hundred steps from the control room door, Leon called.

“I need you to oversee the negotiations.”

“Sure.” Using his tablet, Riku projected the images from the surveillance cameras onto the wall, without having to pause in his walk. He loved technology. “Am I looking for anything in particular?”

“The red-haired guy is our envoy. Supposed to be on our side.”

“Did you plant a bug on him?”

“Of course.”

There was an angry grunt in the background, then Cloud saying, “don't pretend you didn't know.”

“Principle of the thing,” said a man with a deep voice.

Riku hummed as his brain struggled to keep the conversation going, watch the images and pick his way through the corridors all at the same time. “Don't be mean to these guys. They seem mostly harmless.”

“No one is being mean. That would be unprofessional,” Leon said.

This time, there were two amused huffs in the background.

“Has Sora met up with Aerith's team?” Leon asked.

“Uhh, lemme check.” Riku swapped the images several times. No sign of Sora where he was expected to be. “Huh. Aerith's team is still waiting, and Sora isn't even in that part of the building.”

Leon heaved a long sigh. “He must have gotten lost again. Tell Aerith to proceed without him.”

“Sure.” Riku relayed the message, still flipping through images in search of Sora. “I'm not seeing him anywhere on this level.”

“Can't you just call him?” Cloud asked.

“He doesn't have a tablet,” said Leon.

“Oh.” There was a pause. “Well that's just stupid.”

Riku grinned, trying to smother his worry. Yuffie was in more danger than Sora. She was the priority. “I see we've got ourselves a critic.”

“I offer constructive criticism, too,” Cloud said. “Give Sora a tablet with a map in it.”

“Maybe when we're not being threatened with guerilla warfare,” Leon said. “Riku, you can search for Sora, but he's not a priority.”

“Unless he loses control over Relic,” Riku said.

“We've warned him about that.”

Riku grimaced and didn't say how feeble a reassurance that was.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, a big thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read this ridiculous story. I seem to have gotten new readers recently, and I'd like you to know that I'm grateful for every one of you <3
> 
> Secondly, I have exciting news! The wonderful RBnC has volunteered to be my beta. You won't see the results of her work in this or the previous chapters yet (making and then implementing corrections takes time), but chapter 24 will most likely be error-free and a much more pleasant read than what you've had to put up with so far :)


	24. Helping hand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew, okay, I'm still on time with the chapter.
> 
> Last week, I promised a beta-ed chapter, and sadly, I can't deliver. A certain component of my laptop had decided it's job was done. Forever. So I was limited to my tablet for three days as the laptop was getting fixed, not knowing whether all of my data – this story included – would be left intact. I'm happy to report that nothing's been lost, and this is probably the last time you'll have to deal with my shoddy editing. Hope you enjoy the chapter!
> 
> EDIT: Apparently the gods of fanfiction just don't want me to post on time. My internet connection died just as I finished writing this note. Okay. Fine. I refuse to get angry about this.

Sora watched the five men stumble out of the door and into the night. The sky was clear and a good chunk of the moon – or moons, Sora had no idea, and this _was_ another world – likely showed, because the night was relatively bright. The colours were more saturated than what Sora was used to. Something in the atmosphere, probably.

Sora hung back in the doorway with the woman. She seemed to be rightly suspecting that he might shut them out here. It wouldn't be cruel, Sora reasoned. They'd find the stream and they could huddle together for heat. Riku, or Axel or Roxas, would have told him if there were dangerous animals about, back during their excursion and sparring session.

A painful weight settled in Sora's chest. He wouldn't get to see Axel and Roxas spar ever again, or talk to them. They had spent only a short time together, but Sora thought of them as friends. Loss was a feeling Sora knew too well. If only he could do something.

A cough drew Sora away from his musings.

“I'm Tifa, by the way,” said the woman, holding out her hand.

Sora shook it. “Sora. Nice to meet you.”

“Are you really from Midgar?”

“Yup.”

Awkward silence stretched between them. Sora's mind occupied itself with possible scenarios that would end with him getting to Yuffie at last. Tifa was watching the stretch of nothing before them.

“We're really in the middle of the desert, aren't we,” she said.

“From what I've seen, yes.”

“Maybe there are vehicles we could steal.”

“I haven't seen any.”

“Damn it.” Tife punched the wall. “Fine. We can walk.”

Sora thought about it. “You'd need water. Food. Better clothes.”

“Then get some for us!” she grabbed Sora's shoulders and shook him.

Sora had had enough. He forced her hands away and glared. “There isn't any to spare! This place doesn't have its own resources. Desert, remember?” He pushed Tifa further into the building. “Just sit on your asses and wait! You'll be sent to a nicer place soon! Is a little patience really too much to ask?”

Sora didn't wait for an answer. He whirled around and leaned out of the door. “Hey, assholes! Get back here or I'll lock you out!”

The men exchanges looks and sprinted back, raising a cloud of dust. Sora glowered as they passed him. He locked the door, careful to obstruct the view of the panel. Then he ushered them back whence they'd come.

“Go find a quiet corner and just fucking lie down. Gods. No one is asking anything of you except to enjoy your suddenly elongated lifespans in peace. And what do you do instead? Kill people!”

“But--” began the thin man.

“No buts. You seem to be decent people, so stop acting like murderous little brats.”

“Now hold on,” said the blonde man, digging in his heels. “All _we_ ask for is the basic information. Where are we? Why? How? Where are we going next?” He jabbed a finger at Sora. “Our entire perspectives for a future are pretty fucking important, I think.”

The other men echoed this sentiment.

Sora rubbed his face. “Yes, sure, but you know what? The people who've saved your hides are busy. There's too few of them to even run this place properly when there isn't a mass riot going on.”

The thin man hummed thoughtfully. “How few?”

Sora paused. He attempted to resume his rubbing seamlessly. “How should I know? I haven't counted.”

“It's true that we haven't seen a great many people,” said the blond man.

The thin man nodded eagerly. “Yes! Maybe we could--”

“Look,” Sora interrupted. “If you're thinking what I think you're thinking, stop. They have technology you've never dreamed of. And!” He paused to deliver his most scathing glare. “They seem to be the only ones trying to save humanity from the thrice-damned apocalypse.”

The men did not look cowed at all.

“We need to talk to the others,” said the thin man, and everyone nodded.

Sora sighed. “Guys, look--”

“And we need to get rid of you,” the thin man told him. “Sorry, but you know too much.”

For a moment, Sora could do nothing but gasp in outrage. Then he noticed Tifa making a face like she'd bitten into a lemon, and reconsidered. “Okay, fine,” he said thoughtfully, and punched the thin man in the nose.

The man reared back, clutching at his face. Sora took the opportunity to kneel him right in the family jewels. The thin man went down.

There was a silent moment as everyone stared. Then Tifa sighed, and punched the blonde man in the gut hard enough to bring him to his knees.

“Tifa?!” screeched the other men.

She shrugged. “I draw the line at killing kids and really bad ideas.”

The fight that followed was very short. Sora was angry, and Tifa was a tremendously skilled fighter. Once all the men were lying in a heap on the floor, Sora realised his newest problem.

“Crap. What do we do with them now?”

“Don't include me in your pronouns,” Tifa said. “I have no obligation to clean up after myself.”

Sora opened his mouth to argue, but was stopped by the approaching voices of what he judged to be at least twenty people. When they rounded a corner and emerged from a dark corridor in two groups, exclaiming happily at seeing each other, Sora was gratified to find that he wasn't off by much. There were eighteen.

The people noticed Tifa and Sora. Then they noticed the sorry heap of groaning men. A dark haired woman raised both eyebrows.

“Um?” she said.

“Hi,” said Sora. He tried a little wave.

The two groups merged and slowly edged around Sora and Tifa to cut off their escape routes except the one directly behind them. Some of the people looked murderous.

“Is there perhaps a chance of resolving this peacefully?” Sora asked.

“No,” said the dark haired woman.

So that was that. Sora nodded and prepared himself for the end. The nearest bunch rushed at him and Tifa. Then they released a great variety of screams and yelps and scrambled back. Sora stared. Most curious.

He turned around slowly, expecting to be greeted by the sight of a Dark One's open jaw, at the very least.

A pink haired man in a black uniform smiled at him. “Hello. We haven't had a chance to meet yet, but I've heard a lot about you, Sora.”

“Uh?”

“My name's Marluxia.” Marluxia extended a hand.

Sora shook it numbly. “Hi.”

Marluxia's smile widened. He gazed past Sora and at the startled group. “Now then! How can I help you, my friends?”

*

Riku watched the projections on the wall with wide eyes. Yuffie was nowhere to be seen and the sea of refugees churned and seethed. Riku turned up the volume and sent it through Relic straight to his consciousness – one of the perks of being a host: invisible earphones included in the package. The shouts were too disjointed to understand much, but what Relic managed to interpret amounted to a lot of swearing and general outrage.

It could have meant anything.

Riku sped his steps, unconsciously taking in the surroundings via Relic while his eyes remained glued to the projections. He thanked providence for keeping Leon too busy to call.

Eventually, he had to stop to lean against a wall and catch his breath. His skin felt as if tiny worms were crawling under it. The air coming out of his lungs felt very hot. Riku remembered Axel's cracked skin, the heat it had emanated, and tried not to be afraid. Riku had no one to stabilise him, but he had proven to himself and others that he was abnormally good at controlling Relic. This had happened before. It was normal.

Despite such reassuring thoughts, Riku could feel an anxiety attack coming. Relic helped him notice everything. When his time to die came, he would know every last sensation. Maybe the fear was what kept him in control. Riku forced himself to focus on the projections and take slow, deep breaths.

In one of the images, somewhat distorted by an unevenness in the wall, Yuffie was creeping along a wall, half-hidden by shadows. Only five metres separated her from the refugees, but the crowd was turned inward, engaged in heated discussion.

Riku stared.

Yuffie opened a door and slipped through them in one fluid movement. The door slid shut.

After another second of staring, Riku yelped, fear forgotten, and scrambled off the wall and towards Yuffie.

*

Cloud agreed to accompany the delegation on their next excursion, and Leon was left to wait with Rude. He tried pacing, but it didn't help discharge any of his tension. He thought about meditating, but he didn't feel safe enough in this location and so it would be a futile effort. Eventually, he mimicked the turk and just stood there with his arms crossed.

He lasted about three minutes, after which he pulled out his tablet and took to issuing orders and warnings to technicians and medic teams. He exchanged a few clipped messages with Xemnas. Yes, Ansem was still asleep. No, no more researchers could be spared to subdue the riot; most were injured.

When Cloud's impatient grunt broke Leon out of his work-trance, Leon had to struggle not to startle.

“They don't want to wait,” Cloud reported, echoing the words of both Reno and the still-nameless envoy. “I think I managed to scare them, though.”

“You managed to scare _me_ ,” said Reno. He was looking more uneasy than before about standing next to Cloud. “You soldier types talk about bloody massacres like they're nothing.”

Leon's mouth twitched. “They tend to get old after a while. Anything else, Cloud?”

“Yes,” Cloud said and stepped close enough to lay his head on Leon's shoulder. He was shaking.

Leon cursed.

“I don't know what's wrong.”

“It's Relic.” Leon slipped a hand into Cloud's hair and focused his Relic, imagining an invisible whirlwind around Cloud.

Riku was better at this sort of thing. Leon generally relied on his enhanced physical senses and even a simple check like this was both difficult to maintain and put too much strain on him. Perhaps it was time he worked on this particular set of skills. He could feel the restless currents of Cloud's Relic, though, lashing out at his own.

“This is so very gay,” Reno commented.

Lean ignored him. He needed to pass Cloud's subconscious defences and ground the man until he'd catch on and keep going by himself. It was like trying to hold onto lightning. Trickles of Cloud's Relic spread from the points of contact between him and Leon and sunk deep. It stung, but did no damage.

Leon grunted. He didn't open his eyes. “Help me out.”

“How?”

“Your Relic is trying to strike out. It's probably because of the electromagnetic fields of so many bodies in one place. You need to direct Relic inward, or else you'll go through a few energy bursts, kill the bystanders, and probably unbalance yourself enough to turn Relic against you.”

Cloud hummed in interest. He didn't seem frightened at all. His hands hooked onto Leon's elbows and his muscles went lax. That was a good move. Relic couldn't be kept in by force, it had to be coaxed. Cloud really was a natural.

Eventually, Leon extricated himself and stepped back, keeping wary hands on Cloud's forearms. Cloud's blue eyes blinked open, glowing just slightly, which meant his control wasn't perfect. But it would be enough.

“What was that about killing bystanders?” Reno asked.

Leon kept his eyes on Cloud. “Don't worry. I think there's no danger now.”

Cloud stood back and rubbed his hands. Sparks flew. He stretched, which had much the same effect.

“You need to stop shedding energy,” Leon told him.

Cloud gave a shrug and another shower of sparks. “I will once I can keep it all under control.”

Leon wondered how bad Sora would be. Luckily, there was time before they would have to find out.

“You should call Riku,” Cloud said.

“Yeah?”

“The refugees got a little strange by the end there. Like something had gone wrong. It's why we left.”

“Yeah.” Reno scratched at his head. “It sounded like things were about to get ugly.”

There was no use wondering what might have caused it. Leon pulled out his tablet and called Riku.

 


	25. Fractured

Sora reflected that while Marluxia's appearance was certainly strange, it didn't account for the way some of the men before them had screamed like little girls exposed to helium. He edged himself between the man and Tifa and watched attentively as Marluxia took a step towards the refugees, arms loose at his sides and a smile on his lips. The refugees took a step back.

“Now, now, no need to be frightened,” Marluxia said. “We're all friends here. After all, I've spilled blood making sure the lot of you could get here more or less alive.”

“Really? Wow!” Sora found that curiosity was quickly overcoming his wariness. And discharging the tense atmosphere seemed like a good idea. He laughed. “Sorry. Now you have to save my ass, too.”

Marluxia shrugged his broad shoulders. “It's no problem. I enjoy meeting new people.”

“Yeah, but wouldn't it be nicer over a cup of coffee or something. Oh wait.” Sora shot the refugees a look. “The cafeteria is a little bit occupied.”

“So it would seem. Hmm.” Marluxia opened a door on his right and peered inside. He tilted his head in contemplation, pink hair spilling across his shoulder blades. “This should do.”

The image of the dark figure in the corridor the night he met Vexen flashed before Sora's eyes. Fluffy pink hair. Oh. Sora had to bite his tongue to keep from gasping in realisation.

“Please retire to this here storage room,” Marluxia said politely. The refugees glared. “It's a bit dusty, but otherwise empty, and I really don't have patience to find proper accommodation for ungrateful, murderous, rioting whoresons who should have just waited half a day to be sent to a much nicer place, rather that disrupt the lives of their saviours and prevent them from resting after weeks of desperate fighting.” By the end of his speech, Marluxia's voice was something between a hiss and a growl, and he looked ready to tear into the people before him. Something thorny and blood red coiled around his shoulders and arms. It moved like a time-lapse video.

The refugees meekly entered the room. They wouldn't be able to sit or even scratch their noses, they were squeezed in so tightly. Marluxia shut the door.

He turned to Sora and Tifa with a smile. “Let me accompany you to safety.”

Sora's throat felt tight and he was afraid he would squeak, so he just nodded. He didn't know whether Marluxia was going to take them to the control room or murder them in a dark corner somewhere, but he was determined not to let his fear show. Sora nodded at Tifa, and they followed Marluxia's lead.

*

Riku found Yuffie by following the trail of blood she had left. It was a very obvious trail. Riku had Relic clean it up.

Yuffie was tying a strip of her uniform around her injured arm when he walked up to her. They were hidden among large crates that had been abandoned in the middle of a corridor. Riku wasn't sure what was in them, and he didn't care enough to find out.

“That was embarrassing,” Yuffie told him without looking up from her work.

“What was?” Riku crouched beside her and batted her hands away, taking over. She hissed when he prodded at her arm, but he had to know how bad it was. “Shit. This is an open fracture.”

“Tell me something I don't know.” Yuffie swallowed thickly. She was a bit green around the edges. “It's going to take forever to heal this.”

“I think a couple of days in a tank would help you regain psychological balance.”

“Har har.”

Riku huffed in frustration and stood up. He peeked into the closest crate. “We need a splint, and... Huh.”

“What?” When he didn't respond, Yuffie kicked him in the shin. “Riku.”

“I think these are dismantled guns.”

“Oh. Huh.” Yuffie got up with much grumbling and pained grunts. She stood at Riku's side. “Well I'll be damned.”

Riku bent over the crate and rummaged inside. He emerged with two long, thin pieces and raised his eyebrows at Yuffie.

She gave it some consideration. “Yeah, okay.”

Once the splint was in place and Yuffie's arm was secured to her torso (and Riku's uniform coat had become a waist-long jacket), they were ready to go. Riku took out his tablet to mark their location, just in case.

They heard voices and footsteps, and huddled behind the crates. Riku nudged his surroundings with Relic and found only two refugees. It was pathetic that he and Yuffie had to hide from only two.

Riku's tablet buzzed. It was still in his hand so he got it to quiet down very quickly, but the refugees had heard. They approached the crates, murmuring reassuringly to each other.

_We can't let them see the guns_ , Yuffie sent.

_Don't use Relic, you're exhausted. I'll think of something._

Riku slipped the tablet into his pocket and started sneaking towards the refugees, eyes closed. They were men, both bigger than Riku, and likely not as worn out. It was like a puzzle, Riku decided, a game. Find the right order and combination of actions to advance to the next level, or lose your life.

Actual fighting was out of the question – someone would shout. Riku focused Relic into two tendrils and directed them at the refugee's faces. Relic slipped inside with every breath, clogging up the men's airways without touching any surface, so that they wouldn't notice.

They noticed when their breathing became much less effective.

“I feel weird,” said one man.

The other fainted instead of answering. The first man was at his side immediately, shaking him.

“Hey!” he called. “Get up!”

Riku panicked. The man choked, scrambled at his throat, and slowly keeled over. It was over in less than a minute.

“You all right there?” called a voice from deep within one of the corridors.

Riku started towards the unconscious men to pull them away, but he retreated at the sound of footsteps. He crawled back to Yuffie. “Fuck,” he told her.

“Yes, rather.” Yuffie was glaring at the ground. “We can't leave. The crates...”

“They might not be able to put the parts together. It's like, alien technology.”

“There was a manual in the crate we looked at.”

“Written in the language of Hollow Bastion, no doubt.”

“With pictures.”

Yuffie glared. Riku glared back with all he was worth, but she had the power of righteousness on her side.

“Fine. We'll take the manuals.”

“From every one of the two dozen crates, some of which are sealed?”

More footsteps and agitated shouting. The unconscious refugees had been found, and a small crowd started to form at the intersection.

Riku wanted to punch something. “Okay. Fine. Whatever. I'll stop them.”

“Riku...”

“You've had Relic longer than me. Who knows how bad your overload would be.” Not as bad as Axel's, definitely, and Yuffie tended to direct Relic inwards, enhancing her own performance rather than affecting others – but there were no rules, only tendencies, with Relic.

Yuffie's glare was almost a physical sensation. “I won't let you overload.”

Riku shrugged. The refugees had noticed the crates and were approaching slowly. Riku was already at work, though. The closest two dropped, the arteries in their necks clogged almost entirely. There was some more shouting, but Riku tuned it out, struggling to keep his focus. This kind of precision work wasn't easy. He didn't want to kill the refugees, or damage them permanently.

Sweat trickled down Riku's face. He looked Yuffie in the eyes. “Go. Take my tablet and call Leon.”

She shook her head, grinning slowly. “Nope. I'm your backup.”

When her time came, Yuffie would laugh and fight ever harder, not to keep death at bay, but because danger had always energised her, Riku thought. He wondered what world she had come from, and how bad it had been. He regretted having never thought to ask.

There was a pile of refugees at the mouth of the corridor. A lull in the shouting, replaced by grunts, signified that those still standing had begun clearing the bodies. Riku's tablet buzzed again.

“You hear that?” said someone.

“Yeah. Fuck this.” There was a heavy thump. “Let's go all at once and find out what the fuck is happening.”

“But... it might kill us.”

“These guys are not dead, if you haven't noticed. They just blacked out. Come on.”

Riku cursed whoever was calling him and prepared himself, giving up on feeling out his surroundings too thoroughly. It consumed too much energy. He still felt Yuffie change her breathing pattern and call up a dozen tiny, spinning blades.

“Yuffie,” Riku warned.

“Shut up.”

The refugees marched on. There were at least twenty of them now. Riku had to take some time on each one. Yuffie's blades were quicker, but did less damage – she could only cut through muscle and minor arteries if she didn't want to kill them. Scratches frightened the refugees, but they were apparently angry enough to keep advancing.

It wasn't going to work, Riku realised. Yuffie was too exhausted to manage this level of precision for long, and the same went for Riku. They were either going to have to kill the refugees, or let the refugees kill them.

Riku felt a disturbance in the air, and the awareness of powerful Relic near by, settling over him like a blanket. He grabbed Yuffie and pushed her to the ground. A wave of heat flared above them. The refugees screamed.

“What's going on here?” said Leon's voice.

Riku pushed himself up, slowly, and looked around. The refugees were fine, though most of them were sprawled on their asses and looking at Leon with wide eyes. Leon, crouching on a crate just to Riku's left, had a grim expression on his face.

“Hello, Riku,” he said, without taking his eyes off the refugees.

Riku resisted the urge to lay back down. “Look, I--”

“No,” said Leon, quietly. Riku shut up.

Cloud was at Leon's back, rummaging through one of the crates. “Weird looking weapons,” he decided. “Are there even bullets in one of these?” He went to open more crates.

Riku admired his nonchalance in the face of Leon's silent wrath. He also felt rather stupid for not checking whether there was any ammunition.

“There should be bullets,” Leon said. “But not many. Judging by what's been found upon arrival in Hollow Bastion, the original residents had tried to fight the Dark Ones off with guns. When that didn't work, they got desperate enough to turn the guns on each other. Which is why they had to be dismantled.”

Cloud made an amused huff. More like a louder-than-usual exhale, really. “Thank you for the history lesson.” Still he added, a moment later, “that means this world has been ravaged.”

“Yes. It was the first.”

Leon slid off the crate and pretty much prowled towards the refugees. Riku pulled himself further up and peered over the edge of the crate to watch. Cloud perched on the edge of the crate without obscuring Riku's vision.

“He does have a rather nice ass,” he murmured. Leon's fingers twitched.

Riku held onto the crate to keep from falling over. He stared at Cloud with huge eyes. “Really? Is this what you think about in the middle of a crisis?”

Cloud shrugged. “Would you like me to postpone it until the end of the apocalypse?”

“Yes!”

“Sorry, but no. I'm not into necrophilia.”

Riku decided to ignore him. Yes, that was definitely the best course of action. He watched Leon pull one of the refugees up by the man's collar. Riku could feel the heat radiating off Leon behind his crate. The refugees had to be getting cooked.

“I would like you to gather your friends,” Leon said. “Both the conscious and the unconscious, and put them in a room. Can you do this for me?”

The man squeaked in affirmation.

“Good.” Leon let him fall onto his ass. “Get to it.”

The man turned to the other refugees. There was a flash, like miniature lightning, and he screeched, jumped, and grabbed his behind. Hands thus occupied, he flapped his elbows at the other refugees, urging them to move.

Leon turned to quirk his eyebrows at Cloud.

“Oops?” Cloud offered.

“Yeah, right.”

“Fine, fine. I wanted to see if I could do it.”

Leon thought about it. “Acceptable,” he decided.

Once they had the refugees locked up and Yuffie was sprawled semi-comfortable across Leon's back, they made for the closes infirmary.

“Yuffie. How did the refugees get you?” Leon asked.

“I don't really remember. I was with Cid, and then...” She bit her lip. “Then I was upside-down and there were a lot of shouty voices. My head really fucking hurt, so I slipped away. And then Riku found me.”

“That's impressive,” Cloud told her. “I'm not sure how you were able to move.”

“What about Cid?” Leon asked. “Do you remember where he was taking you? To which infirmary?”

Yuffie rested her forehead on Leon's shoulder, scrunching her face up in thought. Cloud's fingers flexed. Riku noticed, because Cloud had a steady grip on his arm, in case Riku decided to faint without warning.

“We were coming out of the Threshold chamber, so it would have to be somewhere close, and not full of refugees.” Yuffie groaned. “Shit, my head. If brains start leaking out of my ears, just kill me.”

“Thank you, Yuffie,” Leon said, and touched the top of her head. She was out like a light.

“How did you do that?” Cloud asked, looking speculatively at Riku.

Riku sputtered. “Oh, hell no! Practice on the refugees.” He found he couldn't get free of Cloud's grip no matter how hard he struggled.

“I tend to meet them in circumstances that require haste, though, and that's never the right environment for practice,” Cloud said.

“I won't let you try it on anyone until I'm sure you won't give them brain damage,” Leon told him.

*

They left Yuffie and Riku in the nearest infirmary with a team of medics, and went to search for Cid. They found him in the first infirmary Leon thought to check.

Cloud cringed at the sight of the tank. “Ah. These things creep me out.”

He completely ignored the fact that blood covered the tank, most of the floor, the door, and the floor beyond that in a trail going in the opposite direction than the one Leon and Cloud came from.

“Is he even alive?” Cloud asked.

The tank was not lit, and sat there quietly rather than produce the usual hum of delicate machinery. Leon waited until he was sure his voice would be even before replying. “No.”

Cloud was quiet for a moment. “Oh. What now?”

Leon walked over to the tank and turned it on. He set it to stasis. “Now we leave him here and seal the room. Touch nothing.”

Cloud's hand hovered millimetres over a handheld scanner on the table by the door. “Right.”

“The riot takes priority. People might still be in danger.” Leon paused, realising something. “Now that I think of it, I had Sora approach the refugees. He was meant to contact me once he got in position, wasn't he?”

“Yeah.”

Leon swore.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap, I honestly almost forgot to post this chapter today. And it's a reasonably fun chapter, too! (I hope.)


	26. Weight of words

An apocalypse did not make the bizarre look normal, Sora reflected. The non-threatening kind, at least. The kind of bizarre with sharp teeth and claws and the desire to gut him was pretty much expected. Sitting at a round garden table in a room that was the lovechild of a flower shop and a jungle, drinking tea, was not.

“Have a biscuit,” Marluxia said, pushing the plate closer to Sora.

Sora had a biscuit. Tifa, sitting on his left, did the same.

“Look,” Sora said through a mouthful of carbohydrates. “You've saved me and I'm grateful, but I really need to go. I'm supposed to be helping with something very important.”

“Of course, of course.” Marluxia poured more tea. “But it seems to me that you're a new Relic host, and your control is not yet perfect. Correct?”

“Yeah.”

“You've been flaring up with energy – without noticing, I suppose? It could be a prelude to a mild overload. Don't worry, though, I've laced the tea with elixir.”

Sora, who had been in the middle of a sip, snorted and dribbled tea all over his chin. “Wha?”

“What's elixir?” Tifa asked sharply. She had drunk two cups herself.

Marluxia leant back in his chair with an air of self-satisfaction. “It's a performance enhancer. You'll be more energised and think more clearly. You, on the other hand.” He pointed at Sora. “Will have extra control over Relic for as long as the drug is in your system. Which isn't long, before you ask. A couple of hours. Relic burns through the stuff just like that.” Marluxia snapped his fingers.

“You've drugged us,” Sora said. He couldn't quite believe it.

Marluxia chuckled. “Relax. It's what we usually do with new hosts. I only added about two drops per cup.” He waved his own empty cup at them. “I drank it, too.”

Sora's eyes narrowed. Marluxia could have simply poured the drug directly into his and Tifa's cups, rather than the floral kettle standing in the middle of the table. Was he too lazy, or did he need to drink elixir as well? “Are you having trouble with Relic?”

“I'm recovering from an injury. It tends to disrupt the balance of your body.” Marluxia pulled up one sleeve to reveal green vines growing into the skin of his forearm.

Both Sora and Tifa leaned away, grimacing. The vines twitched when Marluxia flexed his arm.

“It's not that bad, you know.” Marluxia pulled his sleeve back down. “Would have been worse, if not for Riku's help.”

Sora perked up immediately. “Riku? You know him?”

“Of course I do. Hollow Bastion is a small organisation, Sora.”

Sora re-evaluated his situation. If Riku had helped this man, then maybe Marluxia wasn't a bad person. Or maybe Riku had been thinking about how thin their ranks were already. Still, Sora found himself less inclined to jump at Marluxia's every move. He did feel better after drinking the tea, he realised. Less like he was about to crawl out of his skin.

He wanted to ask about Vexen, see Marluxia's reaction, but didn't. He would if Tifa hadn't been there, Sora told himself. She didn't deserve to get caught up in his mess.

“All right. Okay. Thank you for helping.” Sora tried to look earnest. “But I really need to go now.”

Marluxia sighed. “You're free to go, of course. Will you find your way?”

“Yeah, no problem.” Sora glanced at Tifa, who glared right back. “Um.”

“Your friend should stay,” said Marluxia, putting his chin in his hand. “You want to help with the riot, right? Since she's one of the refugees, someone should keep an eye on her. And I have nothing better to do.”

Tifa was going to sprain something if she kept glaring like that. She would be safe here, though, Sora thought. Marluxia wouldn't do anything to her right after Sora left Tifa with him. It would be too obvious.

“Good idea,” Sora said, grinning at Tifa. “Thanks for the tea! Bye!” He was out of the room before either of them could respond.

Sora ran, consulting his tablet for guidance. The corridors were curiously empty. He arrived at the meeting place and checked the time. He was almost two hours late.

The medics must have gone in without him, Sora decided. One way to find out, and he wanted a chance to talk to the people from his world. He didn't think he would find any acquaintances among the survivors – Sora's neighbourhood had been one of the first to go when the Dark Ones appeared. Sora himself had only survived because he had been buried under a pile of rubble, and by the time he had dug himself out, there had been no one else alive in the area.

Sora approached the cafeteria. He could hear muffled voices inside, but still no one in the corridors. Maybe Leon and the others had managed to talk sense into the refugees.

Sora opened the door and walked in, trying to appear confident. The refugees, seated at and on the tables or sprawled on the floor, stared. The air was hot and stale, and smelled of fear.

“Hi!” Sora said brightly. “I was wondering – are any of you from around Blue Bay?” There was silence. Sora sighed, and told himself he wasn't disappointed. “Oh. Okay, I guess I knew that already.”

The people were beginning to stir, murmuring to each other. Several men inched protectively in front of others. A few began moving at a snail's pace towards Sora.

“Are you from Blue Bay?” asked a small girl, sitting on the floor not three feet from the door.

Sora smiled. “Yeah.”

“Bullshit.” Said a skinny teenager. “Blue Bay got blasted into nothing.”

“More like pushed over,” Sora said. “By the big ones.”

This earned him a few intrigued murmurs.

“So why are you working for the uniforms now?” asked a middle-aged woman. She had a kid under each arm, heads pressed to her breast. “Don't deny it. You've got the outfit.”

Sora glanced down at his nondescript trousers and shirt. He had no idea what was so special about them. “Well, you know. They've saved my life, and now they've saved yours. And if I stick with them, I can fight the Da-- the aliens.”

“But aren't they bad people?” asked the girl under the woman's right arm.

Sora smiled. “Not really. Some of them are definitely jerks, but I think they're doing a good thing. They're trying to help.”

The conversation went in circles after that, as more people joined in and asked the same questions in slightly different wording. Sora answered patiently, struggling to hide his delight at the fact that no one was trying to knock him unconscious.

Two hours later, he told the refugees to sit tight and stay calm. Only a little longer before they would see the sky again. Sora opened the door and waved. At least a dozen hands waved back. Sora sighed happily as the door closed behind him. It had felt good to use kindness and patience rather than a blunt weapon.

Someone cleared their throat. Sora looked up and to the right to see a mildly disgruntled Leon.

“Hey!” Sora cried happily. “I'm sorry, there was a thing, but I think I got the job done in the end.”

“Indeed,” Leon said. Sora noticed that he was keeping a careful distance between the two of them. “Congratulations. Would you mind going through a couple of tests?”

*

“I think,” Demyx said carefully. “That we can safely call it 'pheromone power' and stop trying to explain how Relic works. We haven't been able to make sense of it for years, why should that change now?”

“I agree,” said Xemnas, bent over a microscope. “The ability to influence other people's brain chemistry is not a far-fetched idea, considering.”

Cloud, who was sitting cross-legged on top of a cupboard with his chin in his hands, snorted. “Behold the power of science.”

“I think you're a better example of that,” Leon said, and watched Cloud's expression darken. Good. He turned to Xemnas. “We need to talk.”

Xemnas hummed thoughtfully and waved at Saix, who was leaning against the door. Saix apparently understood, because he grabbed Demyx and walked him out of the room.

“Hey! This is unfair treatment!” Demyx managed to shout before the door slid shut.

“Talk,” said Xemnas without looking up from the microscope.

Leon smiled humourlessly and sat down in a swivel chair. He kept his feet planted firmly on the ground. “One, the two of us need to establish an effective system of joint decision-making, now that Ansem is out of the picture. It would be a start if you answered my calls.”

“I do answer them.”

“Only when it suits you.” Leon ran both hands through his hair. “Two, Vexen and Cid are dead, and Axel is as good as. I understand Saix is conducting a thorough investigation?”

“Of course.”

“I want the reports. Three, do you trust Zexion?”

“No more than anyone else, no.”

Leon rubbed two fingers over his mouth. “I gave him permission – with Ansem's approval – to experiment on Vexen's body. He says it's Relic research, but if it's not, maybe he'll give something away. Assign him an overseer.”

This caught enough of Xemnas' attention that he straightened and stared unseeingly over Leon's shoulder. “Hmm, that's doable. Luxord officially, and Xigbar as backup.”

“I leave the details to you.” Leon did not trust Xemnas that much, but the man was the closest thing to an ally Leon had. “Next, Roxas.”

“He's staying in Axel's room.” Xemnas shrugged. “Or as close as he can get without being baked alive.”

“Is Axel conscious?”

“Some of the time.”

Leon sighed. Axel's continued survival was a scientific miracle, but it was cruel to let him go on like this. Sadly, killing an overloading Relic host was an operation that required precision and patience if a last burst of power was to be avoided. The only ones with abilities suitable to the task were probably Lexeus, Xemnas and Leon himself.

“All right. The last two matters: the diplomatic mission and your sleeping friends.” Leon watched Xemnas' expression closely.

The man gave nothing away. “You should go. You know Traverse Town well enough, and they've always liked you there. As for my 'friends' – I'm preparing to wake them up.”

“Why are preparations required?”

“Because they've been in stasis for a long time. At least fifteen years.”

Leon glanced at Cloud. He decided to take a gamble. _What do you think?_ he sent.

Cloud made no indication of being pulled into a telepathic conversation and continued to pick at the hem of his trousers. _I think he's good at bullshitting you without having to lie._

_The important question is whether there's harm in it._

_Always._

“Keep me updated on you progress,” Leon said to Xemnas. He stood. “I need to see Yuffie and appoint someone as head technician. I assume you have no suggestions?”

“No.” Xemnas put hesitant fingers to his temples. The situation was taking a toll on him, as well. “I can't believe Cid is dead. Vexen was less of a shock, somehow.”

Leon touched his knuckles to Xemnas' forehead. Sometimes all it took was physical contact with a fellow host. “Be careful. If you get killed--”

“Same to you,” Xemnas interrupted, pushing Leon's hand away. His expression was less pinched, though. “The two of us are crucial to this organisation. The person who killed Vexen probably knows this. The person who killed Cid knows how to operate a tank, which means they are a staff member. And everyone in Hollow Bastion knows that without us and Ansem – well.”

Leon pushed past Xemnas with a dismissive shrug. Cloud was waiting for him at the door. “You're the one who keeps sending his partner on independent assignments, leaving yourself vulnerable.”

Xemnas hummed. “So I am. Nice talking to you, as always.”

“Right.”

Leon took Cloud to the small cafeteria the research team used. Thankfully, it was empty. Once their trays were filled and they were sitting at one of the long tables, Leon felt a little less like he was about to slip from shock into panic.

“It's disgusting,” Cloud said.

Leon looked at Cloud's food. Rice, meat, vegetables. A bit dry, but not too bad. “You want to get something else?”

“Not the food. This place.”

“What, are the sanitary conditions not up to your standards?”

Cloud glared. “I meant the part where you people should be fighting the Dark Ones, and not each other.”

“Ah.” Leon chewed on his noodles contemplatively. “I wish I could introduce military discipline and chain of command, but that'd cost me half the staff.”

“You're barely holding everything together without that Ansem guy. And Xemnas is no help.”

Leon sighed, pushing a meatball around with his fork. It was true. Hollow Bastion Initiative had very fragile foundations. It had always been so, and it had cost them several unnecessary losses. The mysterious murders, however, were a new phenomenon.

“Xemnas is doing it on purpose,” Leon said. He abandoned his fork and steepled his fingers, partially covering his eyes. “He has his own agenda and doesn't want other responsibilities to take up too much of his time.”

“That leaves you in the position to put things right.”

“I don't want to be stuck here when everyone else is risking their lives.”

Cloud made a disgusted sound and pushed himself to his feet. Leon looked up, noting that Cloud's plate was empty.

“Where are you going?”

“For a walk. I need to think.” He gave Leon a cold look. “It would be easier on you if you just admitted to yourself that you're scared of being responsible for the future of humanity. I, for one, do not intend to deal with your bullshit.”

Leon speared the meatball with unnecessary force and watched Cloud's retreating back. Who did this man think he was, talking as if he knew everything? Leon remembered a similar conversation with another blonde, before everything went to hell back in his world. He didn't need this. Cloud would have to learn to shut his mouth.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no cheap drama.  
> 
> 
> I feel like I'm losing momentum with this story. It's probably because I've reached a point (in the latest chapters I've written, not the ones I've published) where some things need to be revealed and explained, and I'm scared because that's going to require really careful execution. I really don't want that part to be disappointing. Oh well. That's what rewrites are for.


	27. Connection

Riku wondered if this was what it felt like to have an overprotective mother. It wasn't an entirely bad feeling, but it was overwhelming. They were fighting to stop the apocalypse, after all. One had to come to terms with the fact that people would run straight into danger. They would never get anywhere otherwise.

“You irresponsible asshole,” Sora said, bumping his fist against Riku's shoulder. It was so gentle it barely qualified as a hit, but Sora's whole arm shook with the effort. “You let me stumble about on my own among murderers and rioting crowds. You almost got yourself killed!”

They were in Riku's room, had only just gotten back from the infirmary. Aerith had told Riku that he was tired, bruised, and suffering from a lethal case of idiocy, but it wasn't worth putting him in a tank. Yuffie, on the other hand, had been dumped straight into one.

“You made no indication of entertaining suicidal thoughts, so I couldn't even get worried!” Sora flapped his arms like a confused bird. There was a raw edge to his voice. “I would have felt terrible if you got hurt! First Axel goes and gets himself almost-killed, and Roxas is just barely there, and Vexen dies and Cid! I can't believe Cid is...! And Julian and Bethany, the medics. I left them behind and now they're dead, and I thought... I didn't think...” Sora paused, deflating.

Riku was sitting on his bed, so had to crane his neck to glimpse his expression. He thought there might have been tears.

“And then I left _you_ behind, because I thought you'd be safe.”

“Sora...”

“Shut up.” Sora sniffed and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “You're such a jerk,” he concluded.

Riku was too drained to deal with this. Too much had happened in too short a time. He wasn't thinking clearly. This was what he told himself when he grabbed Sora's elbows, pulled his down, and kissed him.

Sora made a squeaky sound but didn't pull away. It was a chaste kiss, and Riku followed it up by pulling Sora onto the bed.

“Oof!” Sora said as he hit the mattress. His eyes were wide and searching. “Riku, what--”

“Stop talking,” Riku murmured, wrapping himself around Sora. “My head hurts and I can't think. I'd love to have a shouting match, but I really can't. I'm so damn tired.”

Sora's hand moved to rest on Riku's side. “I'm not going to let go just like that.”

“That's fine. Just let me sleep for a week first.”

Sora huffed in amusement, his breath warm against Riku's temple. “This is going to be so awkward if you decide you were just delirious.”

Riku was already half-sleep, but there was something in Sora's voice that made him frown. He struggled to understand language for a moment longer. “Ugh. What? No, no, that's not it.”

“Uh-huh. Convincing.”

Riku pressed his lips to Sora's chin and found it scratchy with the beginnings of stubble. He hadn't thought Sora shaved. It was adorable. “I'll convince you later,” Riku said, and went to sleep.

*

He woke up not three hours later with Relic buzzing under his skin. It took Riku a while to identify Sora as the source of the disturbance. Sora's skin was clammy and too warm. His breathing was shallow, and he wouldn't wake up when Riku shook him. The elixir he had taken must have worn off.

Riku grumbled into his pillow, then went to work. He pushed and tugged at Sora until he had him arranged on his side, then wrapped himself around Sora from behind, as close as he could get. Once his forehead was pressed to the back of Sora's neck, Riku forced more Relic out of his body and spread it like a dense bubble around the bed. He coaxed Sora's Relic to join his and stop assaulting Sora's organism.

Riku felt the shape of the room and everything in it. He was aware of every crease in Sora's clothes – they still needed to get him something more durable and less grey – of the heat they were both generating. That wouldn't do. Riku hadn't yet mastered the art of falling asleep while hyper aware.

If Relic was going to float about anyway, it might as well have something to do. Riku set it to cleaning the room – consuming dust and grit and insects. When he realised his hair was being cleaned as well, he huffed into Sora's neck, amused. Relic had so many uses.

*

There was morning wood when they woke up. Sora, despite being a victim of unconscious poking, rolled away with a nonchalant stretch.

“Hi, Riku,” he croaked, then cleared his throat. “I feel funny.”

“Hi, Sora,” said Riku. He had been awake for a while now, caught between the need to pull away and run for a cold shower, and ill-advised curiosity. “You will have to elaborate. Is this about the kiss? The fact that you are having trouble with Relic? Or my not-so-inconspicuous erection?”

“Um.” Sora coloured, but he held Riku's gaze, grinning. “I dunno. Let me analyse the root of my confusion.”

Riku sighed theatrically and threw a hand over his eyes. “Fine. Do that. Abandon me to loneliness and uncertainty.”

The bed shifted, and Riku peered from under his forearm to see Sora kneeling above him, leg on each side of Riku's hips.

“Hi,” said Sora, and his smile had an entirely different quality now. He lowered himself until he was straddling Riku properly, searching Riku's face. “You know, I don't want to be thrown across the room or something if I cross a line.”

Riku raised his eyebrows. His hands slid to Sora's knees, and up, of their own accord. “Who's going to throw you? Unless you turn out to be a really awful kisser, I guess.”

“Who says I'm going to kiss you?”

Riku grinned. Challenge accepted. “I do.”

Riku used arms and legs to push Sora off balance: knee against hip, other knee pushing Sora's leg to the side. Sora didn't put up any resistance. Once Riku had him where he wanted him – sprawled out and pressed close – he planted a kiss on Sora's chin. “There.”

“No, you got it wrong.” Sora's eyes were bright and he shook with suppressed laughter. “I was supposed to kiss you.”

“What are you waiting for, then? A formal invitation?”

“Maybe.” Sora rubbed his cheek against Riku's. Somehow, the gesture was more intimate than their dicks pressing close together.

Riku closed his eyes and enjoyed the sensation. He hadn't been this close to another person in what felt like years. Sora was warm, not too heavy, and careful with his elbows. A tension Riku hadn't known was there loosened and left him arching up, pulling Sora closer, pressing his nose under Sora's jaw and just breathing.

“Riku?”

“Hmm?”

“Your tablet is buzzing.”

Riku blinked, pulled away and, as the cloud of bliss dissipated, he realised that his tablet was, in fact, buzzing. “Ugh.”

Sora laughed and reached to the bedside table. He put the tablet in Riku's hands and rolled off, but he kept a leg thrown over Riku's. It was nice.

Riku answered the call. “Yeah?”

“Hey,” said Roxas, and his voice was so tired and broken that Riku immediately sat up, guilt clenching at his insides.

“Hey, Roxas,” he said softly. “What's up?”

“Oh, you know. My partner's kind of dying and I can't do shit. Pretty standard.”

Riku slumped over his knees. “Fuck, I'm sorry. I should be there for you two--”

“Hey, no. I know shit was going down, you were busy.”

“Still.” Riku straightened to tap at his tablet for Roxas' location. “Huh. You're that deep underground?”

“Mhmm. Zexion didn't want to disrupt anyone. Also they've hooked Axel to the reactors to leech some energy off him. I think it's working, since he hasn't blown up yet.”

Riku pushed Sora's leg off and stood. He looked around the room, feeling lost. “We'll drop by with food and clean clothes. I bet you haven't been eating.”

“'We'?” Roxas asked, smoothly avoiding the accusation.

“Yeah, Sora's here.” Riku turned to look at Sora, who was sitting on the edge of the bed and nodding. “And he wants to visit, too. Hm. Actually, I could try linking him into the conversation.”

Long-distance communication in Hollow Bastion relied on Relic, at least between Combatants and Observers. Technically, Riku didn't have to speak, because Roxas was receiving his thoughts – transmitted through the tablet – and his voice only made it seem more natural. He spoke out loud mostly for Sora's benefit. That thought made him realise that he hadn't been consciously using Relic to translate their conversations, which meant that Sora's own Relic was settling in and doing its job.

“What?” Roxas asked. “Sora's a host?”

“Yup.”

“Well damn. That's great news. Are you two bonding?”

The question gave Riku pause, because yes, they were, but Sora probably wasn't aware of it. Riku felt like an asshole for not explaining even this basic process. He and Sora needed to have a long, informative talk, and soon.

“Yeah,” he told Roxas. “But, uh, it could go either way at this point.”

“Huh. Well, visit together, and I can help you convince him.”

Riku smiled. “Thanks. We'll be there as soon as we can.”

“Eh, no rush. I'm not going anywhere.”

Roxas cut the call without waiting for a response. Riku stood in the middle of his room, staring at the tablet, until Sora walked over and poked him in the side.

“Hey. Earth to Riku.”

Riku shook himself off, smiled, and bumped shoulders with Sora. “Just thinking. Go ahead and use the bathroom. I need to find clothes for Roxas. His room is just down the corridor, so I'll be quick.”

“All right.”

“You can take whatever from my wardrobe. Towels are in there somewhere, too.”

“Your clothes won't fit me very well, but fine.” Sora very deliberately stepped in front of Riku and leaned in until Riku could feel his breath. “Hey. You're shaking.”

Riku realised it was true, and laughed. His forehead bumped Sora's, so he just left it there. “Sorry. I'm not good at dealing with death. Or imminent death, as the case may be.”

“Is there really no hope for Axel?”

“Our knowledge about Relic is very limited, so there might be. But no one has managed to rein it back in once they overloaded. If it's possible, you'd need to know exactly how to do it, I suppose.” Even bonded partners couldn't help, and in its later stages the overload could spread to other hosts in the vicinity. Riku wondered if having Axel hooked to the reactor would mitigate that risk. “Let's get ready. We can talk on the way there.”

“Okay.” Sora leaned in, lightning quick, and stole a kiss before backing off with a smile.

Riku couldn't help smiling in response. “What was that for?”

“You know that cliché in films and stuff when the main couple keep getting interrupted just before they kiss? That's what. I did it for your benefit. You wouldn't want to become a cliché, would you?”

Riku laughed. For a moment, he just basked in the easy affection between him and Sora. Then he shook it off and kissed the corner of Sora's mouth. Fair was fair. “Stop stalling. Clothes. Shower.”

“I'm going, jeez.”

*

“Whoever dumped Cid in that tank, they did it while he was still alive,” Saix said. He set down his report, crossed his arms and perched on the edge of a table. The signs were barely there, but he looked tired. “They also initiated the emergency protocol.”

Leonhart's breath hissed through his teeth. He was hunched in a chair in Xemnas' lab, chin resting on his clasped hands. Tension and stress radiated off him in hot and cold waves, though Cloud suspected he was the only one who could feel them.

“What's that mean?” Cloud asked, settling his arms more comfortable across the back of a swivel chair.

“It means that the person who killed Cid didn't mean to do it,” Leonhart said. “They tried to save him, but it was too late.”

Cloud hummed in thought. “What if they just wanted you to think so, in case you caught them?”

Leonhart sighed. “Unlikely. By operating the tank, they've made it obvious that they are part of the staff. The risks outweigh the potential rewards.”

Is that really how murderers think, Cloud wanted to ask. Instead, he shrugged and spun in a half-circle. What did he know, after all.

“We've identified the murder weapon, as well,” Saix continued. “It was the shock mace.”

Leonhart stirred. “Those are in storage. All except the one I gave Sora.”

Saix nodded. “The maces in storage are all accounted for. It had to be that one.”

It didn't look like they were about to accuse Sora of being the killer, but Cloud wanted to make sure. “Are you going to question him?”

Xemnas, who had been sitting at his desk quietly up until then, made a dismissive sound. “Yes, because we need to know what happened to the mace, but the boy is obviously not the murderer.”

“He's new here and wouldn't know how to use the tank. The killer either hacked or had someone hack the surveillance system, too,” Saix elaborated.

Cloud considered this. “How many people can hack it?”

“Most technicians who've been here long enough. The question is who can do it without being detected.”

“And the answer?”

Leonhart shrugged. “We don't know.”

“We are not entirely sue what caused Vexen's death, either.” Saix looked at Cloud. “Vexen himself was our specialist on the subject of dead bodies.”

Leonhart exhaled loudly. “You mean the killer could have removed Vexen in preparation for a string of murders?”

It was a bit of a wild guess, but Cloud could see where it came from. It sounded like Cid's death had not been the killer's intention, so he or she must have had something else planned.

“It seems more likely that we have two killers,” said Saix. “Their methods, though not entirely clear, seem very different.”

“That could still be one clever person,” Cloud said. “Maybe with psychological problems.”

“It's possible,” said Leonhart. “As are many other explanations, hence our confusion and inability to solve this whole thing.”

“Our first priority is restoring some semblance of order, anyhow,” Xemnas said. “Leon, we need to make an announcement. What's our official stance on the deaths?”

“One killer.”

“And Ansem?”

“Temporary absence caused by overexertion.” Leonhart ran a hand through his already messy hair. “It would be best to provide some proof that he's alive, considering the circumstances.”

Saix huffed in amusement. “Like what? Seeing him unconscious won't ease anyone's mind.”

“I'd rather have the staff uneasy than suspecting us of a coup.”

“Fine,” Xemnas said. “Now, the last important thing – are you going to Traverse Town or not?”

Leonhart looked as if he'd chewed into something sour. “Luxord and Xigbar?”

“Luxord has been hospitalised. Xigbar is up for a dip next.”

Cloud blinked. “A dip?”

“In a reparation tank,” Saix explained.

“Ah.”

“I could send Marluxia and Larxene,” Xemnas began.

“No,” Leonhart cut in. “And I want you to keep a close eye on Marluxia. Sora witnessed him leaving Vexen's lab a day before Vexen's death.”

“And you're telling us now?” Saix growled. Cloud was surprised by how much he changed in anger – his usually smooth features transformed into an animal snarl. His fists were twitching. Cloud notices Saix's claw-like fingernails.

“It's not reliable information,” Leonhart said, unperturbed. “But we hardly have better leads, so keep it in mind.”

“Of course,” Xemnas murmured. He stared Saix straight in the eyes until the man stopped growling under his breath and straightened from his hunched, predatory position.

Cloud caught Leonhart's eyes. “When do we depart?”

“Tomorrow. Go get some sleep.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so self-conscious about this chapter. The fluffy parts, I mean. I just. I think I'm bad at romance. I'm bad at romance and I'm writing slash fanfic. This is why I need all the plot and worldbuilding. To hide my incompetence in messy mysteries. My secret is out. I am done. (But I'll be back next week with a new chapter.)


	28. Makeover

Their steps echoed through the empty corridors. It was late enough that the refugees should be asleep. And possibly under the influence of tranquillizers. Leon preferred not to know the details.

“I have a whole section to myself, and I'm sure some of the rooms still have beds. I can put you up there. It's quiet.” And I'll be able to keep an eye on you in case Relic malfunctions, Leon didn't add. Cloud didn't seem like the kind of person who succumbed to stress easily, but there was no reason to take that chance.

Judging by the subtle tension around Cloud's eyes and mouth, he'd gotten the message anyway.

“What's in Traverse Town?” he asked in an even voice.

“Shops. People. We can get you some proper clothes.”

Cloud looked down at his flimsy outfit and sighed. It really wasn't made for a fighter.

Leon stopped them both a moment later and opened a door. “Here. Should be nice enough. Mine is on the opposite side, two doors down.”

Cloud stepped into the room, brushing shoulders with Leon with an unhappy grunt. It was Leon's fault, not moving away on time, but the truth was that he enjoyed the contact. It got his Relic to stop its constant, incomprehensible whispering in his thoughts. The physical sensation was like floating is calm, warm water, just for a second. Leon almost gasped.

“It'll do,” Cloud said, apparently to himself. He turned back to Leon. “Will I need anything in Traverse Town?”

“Not really. Relic lets you go longer without sustenance, and can give you the closest equivalent of a bath. But you can bring whatever you want. Even the sword. I'll have it brought here as soon as possible.”

Cloud nodded. “All right. Ugh. Why am I so tired after floating, motionless, for more than a week?”

“Relic is taking its toll. Don't worry, it's normal.”

Cloud frowned at the floor. “I hope you are right. Remember what I said about being genetically engineered?”

“Yes. And I have augmentation in almost every tissue. You'll be fine.”

“Augmentation?” Cloud looked up and gave Leon a once-over. “What kind?”

Leon settled for a neutral expression. He leaned against the door frame. “It was standard procedure for my world's mercenaries. Made me stronger, faster, and more durable. I can keep going despite grave injuries, for example – which in most cases isn't very smart.”

“Like it's ever a choice made freely.” Cloud extended a hand and slipped it under Leon's jacket, touching the skin just above the neckline of his shirt.

Leon held still. “What are you doing?”

“Figuring this out. I can feel electric impulses going through your body. I wonder if I'd be able to mess with your nervous system.” Cloud looked up at him with half-lidded eyes. Leon could see the teasing glint in them, though Cloud's face remained blank.

“Try it and you'll be living in fear in the foreseeable future.”

This elicited an amused huff. Cloud removed his hand. “I do still have some respect for you.”

That sounded a little ominous. “Only for me?”

“Some of the people I've met are competent, but they are also treating the apocalypse as if it were of secondary importance. I don't like it.” Cloud's stance was loose, but his feet were planted apart, his eyes were watchful. He was prepared for a confrontation.

Leon didn't want to give him a reason to start one. “I have to keep reminding myself that not everybody here is a soldier. Most of them aren't mentally prepared for this kind of situation, Cloud. Taking it lightly is their way of coping.”

“You could train them out of it.”

“I don't have the time. Can't pause the apocalypse while I get Hollow Bastion in order.”

Cloud released a long breath. “Never mind. I'm going to sleep.”

Leon nodded. He hadn't liked where the conversation was going, either. “Good. Hold on a moment.” He went to his room to grab a spare tablet. He gave it to Cloud. “You've seen me use one, and Relic is probably already translating, so you should be fine.”

“Hm.” Cloud made a few swipes at the touch screen, entering random menus. “What can I use this for?”

“Communication, mainly. You can also enter our database and read the extremely exciting introduction to Dark One physiology and behaviour for new staff members.”

“Right.” Cloud set the tablet down on a cabinet beside the bed. “Anything else?”

“No. Rest well. We have to leave early tomorrow.”

*

Sora and Riku entered a very hot, very stuffy room. It was brightly lit and furnished with a table and four sofas. Roxas was curled up in the corner of one. His coat was off, but he was obviously still wearing the clothes he had fought in on Sora's world. He was covered in blood and grime, and he stank.

“Oh wow,” Sora said. “Hi, Roxas.”

Roxas lowered his arm so that his eyes peeked above dirt-streaked skin. “Hey,” he croaked.

“You look awful.”

“Thanks.”

Sora wasn't sure how to go about getting Roxas off the couch. He himself had a very strong urge to curl up, preferably somewhere close to Riku, and stay that way. The room was positively crackling with strange energy, constant little shocks that caused Sora's hair to stand. There was an uncomfortable pressure in his ears, and something like manic, nonsensical whispering inside his head.

“Is Axel doing this?” Sora asked. He gestured to the room as a whole.

“No,” Roxas replied immediately. “Axel's unconscious most of the time. It's Relic doing this.”

“Staying here is bad for you,” Riku said, quiet and careful. He blinked. “Wait. Most of the time?”

“Yeah. We've talked. He asked me to kill him.”

Sora startled and glanced at Riku. There was sad determination on Riku's face. “Why not do it?” he asked.

Roxas smiled. His eyes were anything but amused. “One, Zexion won't let me. Two, killing Axel is likely to cause a discharge large enough to fry us all. Any other suggestions?”

“Yes,” Sora said. “I suggest you take a shower and put these on.” He grabbed the bundle of clothes from Riku and deposited them on the table. “Then we'll go to the cafeteria and force some food into you. After that, I'm thinking we should knock you unconscious. When did you last sleep?”

“Four days ago.” Roxas didn't seem at all worried about Sora's threats. “I don't need a shower--”

“You do,” Sora interrupted. “I don't care what futuristic bullshit you want to feed me. Just give yourself five minutes of relaxation.”

Roxas was quiet for a moment. “There was rain. When we fought.”

Sora kicked the couch. “I don't care. Jump into a tub.” He wanted to grab Roxas and force him to get up, but Riku had warned him to avoid physical contact. Roxas, aside from being a mess himself, also functioned as a conduit to Axel's overloading Relic. Sora had been a host for too short a time to be able to deal with that.

“Get up, Roxas,” Riku said, perching on the armrest by Roxas' head, but keeping a safe distance from the tips of Roxas' hair. “You'll be no help to Axel if you pass out or land yourself in a tank.”

“I know that.” Despite his words, Roxas didn't stir. “I just... I don't know what to do, so...”

“I've just told you what to do,” Sora said. “So get up and do it.”

It took a moment, but Roxas managed to push himself upright, blinking owlishly, grab the clothes and stumble out of the room. Sora followed for a few steps, in case he fell over, but Roxas got more steady with every step. Sora returned to the centre of the room and perched on the back of one of the couches.

“Axel isn't gonna survive this, is he?” Sora asked.

“No.” Riku moved to stand right in front of Sora, his arms crossed and his whole posture conveying defeat. “It's... You've seen the state he was in.”

“Yeah. Relic can really mess you up, huh?” Sora stared at his own hands for a moment, then smiled up at Riku. “But thanks to him no one else is dead, right?” He was especially glad that Riku hadn't been hurt. They've only known each other for a short time, but Sora felt a connection to Riku he hadn't ever felt with anyone else. He supposed it could be because of the whole Relic bonding thing.

Riku ran a hand through his hair, tugging on tangles. “Yes, but – Axel's abilities are particularly volatile. He'll go with a bang.”

“What if we went to see him?”

Riku shook his head. “It's not allowed, especially not for a fresh host like you. I have no idea how your Relic would react.”

“Shame.” Sora tried to hide his disappointment. He knew that visiting Axel would change nothing. There was nothing Sora could do for the man. But Axel had been kind, and Sora wanted to at least say thank you.

Riku must have read his expression, because he sighed and pulled out his tablet, perching next to Sora. “I can try and get the camera view of his room.”

“Oh.” Sora perked up immediately. “That would be awesome.”

Riku really was good with technology. A moment later, he and Sora were watching a brightly lit room on the screen of Riku's tablet. The room was empty except for a platform the size of a bed in the middle. That was where Axel lay, entirely naked.

“He must have burnt through his uniform,” Riku commented. He frowned.

Sora noticed movement near the corner of the screen. “What's that?”

“A person. Hold on, let me...”

Riku adjusted the view – probably moving the camera, Sora thought – and the person was now visible.

“Is that... Saix?”

“Not a whole lot of other people with blue hair running around.” Riku frowned deeper, tapping at the tablet to zoom in. “What's he doing?”

Sora leaned closer, chest to Riku's back, arm hanging off Riku's shoulder. He squinted. “I can't tell.”

Riku started to mess with the image again, changing the angle and zooming in and out. The door slid open and Roxas walked into the room. His hair was wet, but there was some colour in his cheeks and his clothes no longer looked like they were about to crumble off him.

Riku turned off the tablet and stood, dislodging Sora. “Ready to go eat?”

“No.” Roxas shot him a glare. “But you're going to force me to go, and I don't have the energy to resist.” He took a moment to give Sora and Riku a contemplative stare. “You two are acting awfully friendly.”

“Sora's going through that stage with Relic,” Riku said, ushering Roxas back through the door. “Plus, bonding.”

Roxas said something in reply, but Sora wasn't paying attention. He felt a bit hurt. Riku had just dismissed his feelings as artificial and temporary. Maybe he'd had experience with this sort of thing, said a voice in the back of Sora's head. Sora ignored it.

*

Leonhart knocked on the door when Cloud was in the middle of his morning meditation session. He hadn't meditated in a long while, but the havoc Relic was wrecking on his system – emotional and physical – warranted a bit of introspection and stillness. He'd been experiencing strange urges, which was what worried him the most. Every time he'd see Leonhart, he'd want to touch him. Cloud understood that this was mostly Relic's doing, but he also knew himself, and he was growing attached. It didn't seem like the smart thing to do.

Cloud pulled himself out of his musings and stood up with a stretch. He took his time getting to the door.

Leonhart's face was blank, but Cloud could only just see the tell-tale signs of irritation. He was overly conscious of this man, which was both useful, and really annoying.

“You don't look very happy to see me,” Cloud said.

“Oh, I'm delighted. Are you ready to go?”

“Yes.”

Leonhart leaned around him to confirm it. Cloud had found a backpack in his wardrobe, but there was nothing to pack. He'd thrown it on the bed anyway, hoping to stuff it with rations.

“We'll drop by the cafeteria, yes?”

“Mhmm. The small, not very well supplied one.”

“Wonderful.” Cloud frowned as a new thought crossed his mind. “Can I have better shoes?” He looked at his feet, clad in soft-soled slippers. Good enough for running around the building, but they would be useless on rough terrain.

“I'm not sure what happened to your boots,” Leonhart said.

They found them in the lab in which Cloud's tank stood. Dubbing the tank as his own made Cloud shiver. He never wanted to go back into the thing. Once Cloud had the boots on his feet and felt a little more like himself, Leonhart lead the way to the cafeteria. They stocked up on energy bars, dried goods and water bottles.

“If you get hurt, don't waste the water. Relic will act as an anaesthetic for you,” Leonhart instructed.

“Are you going to make me use it without practising first?” Cloud put no anger or discontent in his voice. It was just a question.

Leonhart seemed to understand that. “You've proven to be a quick study. Honestly, using Relic can't be taught. It's different for everyone. Finding your own solutions to the problems you encounter works best, usually.”

Fine by Cloud. His and Leonhart's relationship was rocky at best. He didn't want to introduce the master-student complication into it.

They went to the Threshold chamber. Technicians swarmed behind the glass panel, ordered around by an unfamiliar man with black dreadlocks.

“Xaldin,” Leonhart greeted.

“I wish you both luck,” said Xaldin shortly. “The coordinates are ready. Just wait till we fire it up.”

“Right.”

Cloud eased closer to Leonhart so they were almost shoulder to shoulder. “How many Relic hosts are there?”

“The two of us, Riku, Sora, Xemnas, Saix, Xaldin, Demyx, Zexion, Lexeus, Marluxia, Larxene, Xigbar, Luxord, Yuffie, Roxas, technically Axel. And I hear some girl from your world wants in.”

It wasn't a long list. “That's all?”

“No,” Leonhart admitted, after a pause. “We have several MIA cases. They might turn up yet.” He frowned. “And there might be some I don't know about. I can never be sure with Xemnas.”

“Isn't that a problem?”

“I trust everyone here to keep our situation in mind. No one's working to end the human race, Cloud.”

“What about the killer?”

Leonhart sighed. “There has to be a motive. I just haven't figured it out yet.”

A near-imperceptible wave of vibration went through the room, and the blob of colour appeared in the centre of the Threshold. It was mostly red and blue today, and bubbling wildly.

Leonhart adjusted his own backpack, then checked Cloud. Once satisfied, he said, “we'll go through at the same time. Don't think about it. Just walk.”

“Uh-huh.”

It was like being snatched by an invisible force that pulled at every square millimetre of Cloud's skin at once. There was a moment of nothing but velocity, shapes and colours flashing by so quickly they blended into one. Cloud felt the stirrings of nausea, and shut his eyes. The next moment, he was stumbling on a cobbled street, and would have fallen had Leonhart not grabbed his elbow.

“All right?” Leonhart asked.

Cloud took stock of himself. Everything seemed to be in order, aside from his heart hammering somewhere in the vicinity of his jugular. “Yeah.”

Cloud straightened and took a look around. A mostly-empty street, tallish town houses lit up by neon lights. Shop windows on the first floor, shutters and drapes obscuring the ones higher up. The sky was darkening, but no stars had come out yet. People in strange clothes milled about. They didn't give Cloud and Leonhart a second glance.

“Peaceful place.”

“No,” Leonhart murmured. He kept his grip on Cloud's elbow. “Something's wrong. We were supposed to be greeted by an envoy.”

“What, feeling neglected?”

Leonhart ignored the jab and pulled Cloud towards one of the shops. Basil's Men's Wear, it said above the door. Leonhart didn't wait until the bell stopped chiming before pushing Cloud deeper into the shop. “Go grab something sturdy. I'll ask questions.”

Sensing that Leonhart was about to have them running around, Cloud didn't waste time. He found trousers, a sleeveless shirt, gloves and a jacket. He tried them on in the changing room and didn't bother taking them off once he made sure they fit.

Leonhart was giving shopkeeper one-syllable answers when Cloud emerged. Leonhart's eyes snapped to him. “Good. Get your ass moving. How much?” The last part was directed at the shopkeeper.

The man stammered the price. Leon slapped a few notes onto the counter, grabbed Cloud by the sleeve of his new jacket and stormed out of the shop. They were running before Cloud knew it.

“Have you maybe gone insane?” he asked, not bothering to raise his voice. Leonhart was supposed to have enhanced hearing.

“The city is under siege and I can't contact with Hollow Bastion yet. It'll take a while, maybe a couple of hours, before the Threshold settles and communication goes through.”

“Wait, what? Under siege?” Maybe it was a local military conflict. Cloud could hope.

“The Dark Ones have it surrounded,” said Leonhart. “Looks like we'll have to find another place for our refugees. To make room for these people.”

Cloud cursed, though he didn't really feel it. Their situation sounded pretty much hopeless, but the purposefulness of Leonhart's steps was reassuring. Then again, Cloud didn't know the man that well. Maybe Leonhart would stay purposeful and level-headed even if there was no hope left. It seemed plausible.

“Where are we going?”

“To Merlin's house. He's the unofficial leader around here. We need to work out a strategy.”

Cloud wondered how long a single city could hold out against the Dark Ones. He remembered Midgar, got his heart beating faster for nothing, and resolved to stop thinking so hard. Leonhart seemed to know what he was doing. Might as well follow his lead for a while.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big thank you to everyone who offered encouragement in response to last week's chapter! I would have long given up on this fic without your support! (No, seriously. I'm too easily distracted to finish a big project like TDD just for myself. It's such a shame I'm also incapable of writing short stories! Because I need epic-scale plot to stay entertained!)
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Finally a change in setting, yes?


	29. Feel at home

Riku took Sora along to Xemnas' office, just to get him used to dealing with the man. Riku had learned in his early days in Hollow Bastion that some issues had to be taken to Xemnas, and some could be brought up with Leon. With Xemnas, the best time tended to be late afternoon, when the man was beginning to feel the need to finish the day's work. It was a distraction that helped in getting little details past him.

Unless Saix was there also, but Riku had waited for the moment when Saix departed for four-o-clock coffee.

“I should take Sora world-hopping,” Riku announced. He and Sora stood before Xemnas' desk, as there were no chairs in the vicinity. Someone must have been pacing. “To get him used to the threshold, and to give him some exercise. It should speed up the maturing of his Relic. We can go somewhere calm, and at the same time get some recon done.”

Xemnas hummed, frowning at his tablet. He appeared to be half-listening at best. “And where would you go that's so calm? You know how people react if you suddenly appear in the middle of a square.”

Riku shrugged. “Dozens of abandoned worlds to choose from.”

That caught Xemnas' attention. He looked up. “You want to go back to your own world.” He paused. “Leon would never allow this.”

“Oh, really? What a shame he's not here, then.” Riku paused, assumed a more serious expression. “I know my world. We won't get lost there, or wander somewhere dangerous.”

“His absence introduces a complication.” Xemnas said, ignoring Riku's reasoning. He accentuated his words by training his pen on Riku. “Leon's in Traverse Town, and we need to communicate. I can't recalibrate the threshold.”

Riku crossed his arms. “We're talking about two worlds we've visited before. Many times. Recalibration will take minutes.”

“Hours in Traverse Town.”

“So? They'll still be talking about providing the refugees with enough toilet paper or something equally vital.”

“I don't want to disrupt important business,” Sora said. Riku resisted the urge to smack him. “But Leon and Cloud report at set times, right? You only need to fit us between those.”

“That's not necessarily easy,” Xemnas said. He rolled his pen back and forth over his desk. “I do suppose a report on the state of Riku's world would be interesting.”

“Of course.” Riku grinned, feeling the first stirrings of real excitement. “We only have in-depth data about abnormal overrun worlds, like this one and that Coliseum place.”

“That's because we've avoided taking unnecessary risks.”

“And where has that gotten us? Nowhere. Maybe it's time to shake things up a bit.” Riku tried to keep the edge out of his voice. He didn't want to seem too eager – that would make Xemnas suspicious and Sora worried.

Xemnas hummed thoughtfully. There was no time for this. Saix would be back soon, and he tended to have a sobering effect on his partner. Riku nudged Sora, who sighed and rolled his shoulders. Sora had said the his Relic's abilities were as much a mystery to him as anyone else, perhaps more so. Still, he had promised to try.

“What's the harm?” he asked. “If we find Dark Ones, we'll keep our distance. Riku will be able to notice them long before they can sniff us out. Right?”

“Right,” Riku confirmed.

“So, we're practically in no danger. Riku's made calculations and the weather should be nice, too.”

Xemnas pierced Sora with a look. “You trust Riku, do you?”

“Of course.” Sora sounded surprised by the question.

Riku experienced crushing guilt for all of two seconds before remembering that he was not going to put either himself or Sora in any danger, that he might have ulterior motives, but his priority would be returning in one piece, with useful information. What he was doing wasn't wrong.

“I trust Riku with my life,” Sora continued. “I know we've known each other for a short time only, but I think I'm good at reading people.”

“Is that so?” Xemnas tilted his head to the side. “Seems to me you simply trust everyone until they prove to be untrustworthy in no uncertain terms.”

Sora shook his head. “No, I don't. Is that how it looks?” He laughed. “Yeah, I suppose it does. I'm capable of liking people I don't trust.”

“Fine,” Xemnas said, though he looked reluctant. “Rule one: stay within a two kilometre radius of the drop zone. Rule two: once you're back, you'll talk about your escapade to nobody, unless someone asks direct questions. Leon and Cloud should have just reported their arrival. You have twenty minutes before the Threshold is recalibrated. I suggest you get packing.”

Riku made an incoherent exclamation, grabbed Sora, and ran out of Xemnas' office. Xemnas' laughter followed them down the corridor.

*

Riku closed his eyes against the blinding sunlight and took a deep breath. He smelled home. He was standing ankle-deep in clear water, in the shallows by a small isle which obscured his view of the main shore. The waves whispered their usual conversations, the breeze ruffled Riku's hair, as if greeting him.

It was too much. A sob tore itself out of Riku's throat and he choked, trying to muffle it. His vision was blurry when he tried opening his eyes his eyes, so he kept them closed. Water was soaking his trousers. Strange. Riku didn't remember falling to his knees.

“Riku!” Sora hissed, splashing around near by. A hand landed on Riku's shoulder, another wound itself in Riku's hair. “Are you all right? What is it?”

Riku bent forward until his forehead found Sora's collarbone. “It's nothing. I'm just... This is my home, Sora. You'll have to excuse my experiencing an emotional reaction.”

Sora's arms wrapped tight around Riku's shoulders. “Okay. That's fine.”

They stayed like that for a while. Riku spread Relic as far as it would go, taking in the humidity, the temperature, every fish swimming by, every curious bird. He wouldn't be able to explain it if threatened with torture. It was just – home. All of his memories and hopes, whole past, everything that had made him. Riku had entertained the notion of coming back here to die. Dying was out of the question now, of course, but it was still a compelling vision for the future.

“I'm all right,” he said after a while, disentangling himself from Sora. He let Sora search his face. “Really. It was just a... moment of weakness.”

Sora pulled them both to their feet. He was wearing the generic, thin grey pants. They looked almost indecent soaked, sticking to Sora's legs. “I wouldn't call it weakness.” Sora's smile was full of understanding. He turned his eyes towards the sea. “This place is beautiful. Of course you'd miss it.”

“I'd miss it even if it was rainy and miserable. Like Midgar.”

“Hey.” Sora landed a smack on Riku's arm. “Midgar is beautiful in spring, if you can find a spot with flowers.”

“Maybe you'll show me one day.” Riku slid his hand down Sora's arm and clasped their hands together. “Come on. Time to explore.”

“Ooh, adventure.”

They checked the small isle first. It had a steep, cliff-like shore, but Riku was able to reach the edge if he stood on his fingertips. Sora boosted him up so he could climb it.

A few palm trees grew there, some bushes, and little else, because the centre of the island had been trampled until only the most resilient grass would grow there.

“We used to come here a lot, my friends and I,” Riku said, smiling. He walked the perimeter of what had once been his training ground. If he looked hard enough, Riku would probably find the wooden swords in the bushes. It would be embarrassing, though, so he didn't. “When the combatants came, they landed where we just did. I happened to be on this island at the time. I was probably the first person from this world to go to Hollow Bastion.”

He felt like it had happened years ago, instead of mere weeks. Riku didn't belong in this place any longer – he had seen too many different worlds, too many wonders. If the Hollow Bastion Initiative ever managed to defeat the Dark Ones and Riku were to return home, he would likely go insane. Any place would feel like a trap after using the threshold almost daily.

“We're really here to search for that friend you've mentioned, right?” Sora asked. He didn't look angry, just inquisitive.

Riku really appreciated Sora's straightforward attitude towards most things. He smiled. “Yeah. Don't worry, though, you're my first priority. If it turns out to be dangerous, we'll go back.”

Sora shrugged. “I want to help you. This person is important to you.”

Riku had to wonder about how Sora had managed to survive in his own overrun world, if he was this selfless with everyone. “She is.”

“How likely is she to be alive?” Sora took a look around. “How long ago did you leave here?”

“Time passes differently here – there's no two words whose timelines align exactly, you know. Remember when I came back from your world for a short break, and I said I hadn't slept in days, though in Hollow Bastion not two days had passed? This is why.”

“Oh.” Sora's eyes widen. He leaned closer to Riku in curiosity. “So, in this world...”

“I'm not sure.” Riku shook his head. Not knowing made him feel helpless. “I've talked to Zexion before, and he said one hour to every seven in Hollow Bastion, by his calculation.”

Sora took a second to parse that. “Hey, that's great! Your friend should be still around somewhere.” He moved to the edge of the isle and shadowed his eyes with a hand to get a better look at the main shore.

Riku put a hand on Sora's shoulder to keep him from wandering too far and falling off the small cliff. This side of the island was lush with shrubbery and palm trees bent by the wind into strange shapes.

“Yeah, but it also means the Dark Ones should still be here. They are at their most aggressive during the initial offensive.”

Sora tensed at that. “Right. Well. We'll just have to be careful.” He turned his head just enough to flash Riku a sharp grin. “And if we run into any, we'll just have to be thorough. I got your back.”

Riku smiled, a little overwhelmed by the wave of affection that left his insides tingling. “I've no doubt that we'll be fine. Now come on. We're up for a refreshing swim.”

*

Merlin was a tiny old man with a beard so long it was a wonder he didn't trip over it. He opened the door to his cottage – and really, what leader lived in a cottage? - wearing a blue robe and slippers. He lit up at the sight of Leonhart.

“Leon! It's so good to see you.” He grabbed Leonhart's hand and shook it with entirely too much force, then attempted to do the same to Cloud. Cloud ducked behind Leonhart. Merlin's enthusiasm didn't falter. “And you brought a new friend. He must be a Relic host as well, eh? It's good to see Hollow Bastion growing again.”

Leonhart cracked a fake little smile. “It's good to see you, as well. May we come in?”

“Oh! Of course, of course! Where are my manners...”

They were ushered into a cluttered little living room. Merlin seated them in surprisingly comfortable armchairs and served tea with cake. Cloud fought to keep a straight face.

“I don't think we have time for social pleasantries,” Leonhart said, but he sounded resigned to his fate. He was already nursing his tea.

Cloud went for the cake. He hadn't had dessert in what felt like forever, and he didn't think people found much time for baking during an apocalypse. It would be a shame to miss this opportunity.

The cake was rather good. Leonhart raised his eyebrows, but didn't comment.

“Nonsense,” Merlin said, finally settling into the third armchair. He put a plate of biscuits next to the cake. “After all, we're fighting not only for our survival as a species, but also for our cultural and scientific achievements. Good manners and fantastic recipes are an important part of that.”

Leonhart's expression said he didn't entirely agree. “I'll leave it to you, then, to remember about our great achievements. Now, about the army of Dark Ones besieging your city...”

“It is most unfortunate.”

Cloud had the distinct impression that Merlin was riling Leonhart up on purpose. Cloud decided not to voice his suspicion. It was funny to watch.

Leonhart pinched the bridge of his nose. “Unfortunate, yes. Traverse Town is garrisoned, isn't it?”

“It is. We have about two thousand ready fighters.”

“How good are they?”

Merlin made an expansive gesture with his fork. “Oh, I'm sure they will be inspired by the need to defend their home and loved ones.”

Leonhart pressed on. “You have heavy artillery mounted on the city walls. Has it been well maintained?”

Merlin tilted his head to the side. “Yes, but what do you intend to shoot with?”

“Bricks, if we're desperate.” Leonhart set his tea down, stared into space. “We need to contact Hollow Bastion. If they choose a world where time passes more quickly, they could transfer the refugees there within two days.”

“How long would that be for us?” Cloud asked.

Leonhart gave him an unreadable look. “A little less than a week.”

“We've held out for three weeks,” Merlin murmured into his cup. “What's one more?”

“What?” It was strange to see clear emotion on Leonhart's face. He was shocked. “Why haven't you informed Hollow Bastion about your situation?”

Merlin's face was blank now, as if to provide contrast. “We have. And we've asked for help. Repeatedly.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm in the middle of exams, but one of them involves writing an essay, so I count fanfiction as practice.


	30. Under the stars

Sora's shoes were a lost cause. They refused to stay on his feet, and squelched noisily with every step. Sora discarded them and happily slipped into the warm water barefoot. The swim to the beach was short, but slow. Riku insisted they be quiet and watch their surroundings carefully. Once they were on dry land again, Sora despaired over the state of his clothes. The light grey trousers and t-shirt were practically see-through when soaked.

Then he caught Riku looking, and decided it wasn't such a terrible thing. As long as the sun dried him off before they encountered other people.

They were lucky enough to encounter Dark Ones first. Or so Sora assumed, when Riku stopped, then pulled him into the bushes by the side of the path. He kept pulling, going deeper into the bunch of vegetation at the base of a small cliff. The islands was all cliffs and shelves, Sora observed, dark stone and yellow sand, spotted with palm trees and blooming shrubs.

Riku led Sora through the shadows along the wall of the cliff, holding onto Sora's left wrist. Curiously enough, it was Sora's right hand that tingled. He felt he should tell Riku about it, but decided that speaking now would be a bad idea. He tried to keep his steps light.

“Crap,” Riku hissed, tightening his hold. “Run.”

Sora ran, holding his free arm up to cover his face as branches and sharp-edged leaves swung his way. At least the ground was carpeted with decaying leaves, so his feet were better off. Sora was covered in cuts by the time they burst out of the trees and into open space. Riku used the momentum to put Sora between himself and the cliff wall. Two Dark Ones rounded a copse of palm trees.

It was over before it began. Riku's blade appeared and he walked towards the Dark Ones as if he were strolling through the park. He whirled, his blade flashed. The Dark Ones toppled.

Not-quite-pain shot up Sora's right hand and faded almost immediately. He turned his arm this way and that, but it looked the way it always did. Sora decided to think about it when he was in less danger and walked up to Riku.

“Should we pull them into the trees?”

Riku shook his head, silver hair swishing. “The others will know, anyway. And you reek of blood.” He looked at the many cuts on Sora's arm. “Sorry.”

Sora shrugged. He noticed Riku had almost no cuts, but there were tiny new scars all over his face, becoming less pronounced by the second. Relic had some serious perks. “Eh. It's not gonna kill me. So.” He put his hands behind his head. “What now?”

“We keep going.” Riku kicked one of the corpses. “Hopefully the others will see it as a threat. Worst case scenario, we call back home and leave.”

Sora suspected that Riku would be upset if that happened. “How long did you plan to stay here?”

“Xemnas gave us two days, in Hollow Bastion time. That means about twenty hours, according to Saix's latest info. Saix's latest info, however, came out of nowhere and probably just means Xemnas wants us back asap.”

Sora thought about it. “Should be enough to take a good look around.” He would be delighted to do so. Riku's old home was like the ideal tropical island on every travel agency advertisement. The sun shone bright and hot, but there was a breeze coming in from the sea, and anyway, Sora didn't mind. It was a shame twenty hours wouldn't be enough to develop a tan.

Riku led him confidently through hidden passages, bunches of vegetation, even a short tunnel in the cliff face and a cave.

“Are there bigger caves?” Sora asked as Riku pulled him up and out of the tunnel. It had been a steep incline. “Maybe people would hide there.”

“Yeah, we're going to check. But they'd go for ones with fresh water, deeper into the island.”

“Oh, right.”

Riku smiled. “How about we check the town first? Get you some shoes before you cut up your feet.”

Sora wiggled his toes. Planting his steps in the dark tunnel had been harrowing. “I'm in.”

The town was a small affair – a bunch of buildings surrounding a dirt square. The remnants of stalls and their merchandise lay in the dust. Sora had to pick his way through some of the sharper objects, like crushed glass beads or knives. He wondered why the people hadn't taken the knives with them to fight back, or make their lives easier. So many things that had to be done with a knife turned into impossible tasks without a sharp object in sight, as Sora had learned after the fall of Midgar.

Riku led him into a clothes and footwear shop. There wasn't much choice. Sora grabbed the first trainers that fit him, shorts and a shirt. After a moment's thought, he took a hooded vest as well. Another layer between his guts and the Dark Ones' claws was always welcome.

Riku gave him a critical look. “I suppose it will do,” he decided.

Sora rolled his eyes. “Apocalypse, remember? I'm going for functionality, not style.” Sora demonstrated by sticking his tablet into one of his many new pockets. “Actually, why don't you observers and combatants wear armour?”

“We sort of do.” Riku indicated the long black coat he'd slung over one shoulder. The day was entirely too hot to wear it. “These things are mostly fireproof, waterproof, and can take quite a beating before they give. It's not armour, exactly, but that's because every combatant has different abilities, and no one has the time to come up with an optimal design for each one of them, and us observers.”

They went deeper into the island, which also meant going uphill. The houses they passed got increasingly more luxurious.

“Don't tell me you lived in one of these,” Sora joked.

Riku said nothing, only pointed up to a sprawling villa on one of the highest shelves. Sora swallowed further comments.

They didn't run into more Dark Ones. Sora assumed Riku had increased the range of – whatever he used to detect danger.

They passed under a tree that hung diagonally over their path. Riku picked a star-shaped fruit, took a few bites. Sora caught up, grabbed Riku's wrist and stole a bite himself. He chewed thoughtfully.

“Hmm. It's pretty good.”

Riku was giving him a strange look. He bit into the fruit once more and gave the rest to Sora. “Yeah. It is.”

Sora scarfed it down. Only then did he notice how hungry he was.

“Well, well, well. Wasn't that a sweet scene,” said a pleasant, female voice. Sora whirled around and saw a girl's ankles on a shelf that was level with his chin. He looked up. The girl was very pretty, with auburn hair framing her face, but somewhat ragged.

“Kairi,” Riku said, voice barely a whisper. The next second he was moving, scrambling onto the shelf and crushing the girl in a tight hug.

She squawked, floundered, then returned the gesture. “Hello, Riku. I'm glad to see you're not dead.”

“That's my line.” Riku was talking into the girl's – Kairi's – shoulder. He released a long sigh and stepped back to take a good look at her. “You're not hurt?”

“No, I'm fine. Tired, though. Haven't been sleeping well.” Her expression was grim. “We lost some people last night.”

Riku nodded. He seemed to be in a bit of a daze. Sora decided to help him out. “Hi, Kairi. I'm Sora. Nice to meet you.” His smile felt a little strained, though he had no idea why.

Kairi smiled back. “Hello, Sora. I'm glad someone's been taking care of my idiot.”

“Hey.” Riku gave her a distracted push. He was looking at Sora with raised eyebrows.

Sora decided to screw tact. “What?”

Riku shook his head. “Later.” He turned to Kairi. “You're hiding in the caves, right? How many people? Do the... creatures know?”

Kairi sat down on the edge of the shelf with a tired sigh. “No one's counted, but at least a hundred people, I'd say. The aliens have been scouting the area. They probably don't know how to enter the caves, but they at least suspect we're hiding there.”

A hundred. Sora worried the side of his thumb with his teeth. They were so far away from where the threshold spit him and Riku out. Sora had the impression that that was the only place from which they could be evacuated.

Riku's expression was conflicted. He looked at the sky. “It'll be dark soon. We won't be able to find the entrances.”

“Not a problem.” Kairi grinned up at him. “I've been going out at night to see what the aliens do. I can find my way back blindfolded.”

“That's--” Sora registered the alarm in his voice and adjusted his tone before continuing. “The... aliens see in the dark.”

Kairi titled her head to the side. “Are you sure? I had my suspicions, but...”

“Positive.” Back in Midgar, he'd spent many a night pressed up against a piece of rubble hoping he wouldn't be noticed. Not everyone had been as lucky as Sora. Screaming had woken him up almost every night – until there were very few people left to scream.

“He's right,” Riku said. He extended a hand to Sora and helped him up onto the shelf. “Let's go. It's dangerous enough when we can see.”

The caves turned out to be a complex structure of large caverns linked by many winding tunnels. Several streams ran through them, the water cool and clean. Nothing edible grew inside, though several of the largest caverns' roofs had caved in and spilled light inside. The people had to be going out every day to gather food. Still, they gladly treated Riku and Sora to a hearty meal, delighted to find another two survivors. Riku politely declined, stating he was too disturbed to eat. Sora wanted to follow suit, but couldn't resists taking a few bites of fruit and fish.

There were too many people. Kairi's estimation of a hundred seemed to have been an understatement. Sora guessed they counted three hundred at least. Too many to lead down to the threshold site safely.

Kairi showed Sora a nook near one of the exits where he could sleep.

“Sorry.” She shrugged helplessly. “The caves are so crowded. But it should be safe. Just... run inside if anything happens.”

Sora smiled. “Don't worry, I'm tougher than I look.” The deeper into the caves, the less likely people were to escape if the Dark Ones attacked en masse. Sora chose not to point that out. “Besides, I'm sure nothing bad will happen.”

Kairi gave him a look that meant she was not fooled by his reassurances. Sora willed her to relax. Surprisingly, her expression became less tense. Oops, Sora thought. But maybe it was coincidence.

“I'd give you blankets if--”

“Really,” Sora interrupted, pushing at Kairi's back lightly to get her walking down the slight slope and deeper into the cave. “I'm fine. Riku's fine. You, on the other hand, need to sleep.”

She bobbed her head. “All right. Just, don't let him disappear on me again.”

“Gotcha. I'll wrestle him down if he tries.”

Kairi chuckled, flashed a smile over her shoulder, and disappeared in the shadows of the tunnel. Sora stalled a moment, collecting his thoughts, then went to find Riku.

It was almost pitch black outside – a moonless night. The stars, though, glinted across the sky like they knew the world was ending. It was a thing to behold. Sora joined Riku on the trunk of a tree that had bent so far it pretty much grew horizontally. He sat close, pressing his shoulder to Riku's. It was warmer that way.

Riku turned towards him, pressing even closer. “You used Relic to interpret for you,” Riku murmured, breath hot on Sora's ear. “Did you do that consciously?”

Sora recalled the exchange with Kairi. “No, I don't think so,” he said, turning his face towards Riku's cheek. He very much wanted to close his eyes and attempt a doze. He felt weary all of a sudden. “But I think I accidentally consciously made her relax.”

“'Accidentally consciously'? That makes no sense, Sora.”

“I know. Relic is very confusing.”

“Mmm. It's feeling out the boundaries between its will and yours. Don't worry, you'll learn to control it.”

“Yeah.”

“But it'll get harder before it gets better. Soon enough, I won't be able to...” Riku stirred a bit. “You... are aware of the bonding process and what it entails, right? Because we're kind of in the middle of it and I wouldn't want--”

“Yes, Riku, calm down. I'm not opposed to bonding with you. In fact, there's no one I'd consider better partner material.”

“Oh.” Sora could swear Riku was blushing. He just sensed it. “Good.”

They settled into an easy silence, resting against each other and watching the night sky. Looking at the vastness of it, with Riku's head on his shoulder and Relic thrumming in his veins, Sora felt very powerful, and calm with that certainty. He was probably capable of doing extremely inadvisable, reckless things at the moment.

He needed a distraction. Riku was there.

“You're upset because we have to leave all of them behind,” Sora stated.

Riku's sigh made the hairs at the nape of his neck stand. “Yeah.”

“But we're taking Kairi back to Hollow Bastion.”

“Yes.”

Sora nodded to himself. “Can't we convince Xemnas to send the combatants here and save these people?”

“We're definitely going to try.” Riku settled more of his weight against Sora. “But I doubt he'll agree. The combatants were hurt recently, and we already have too many people under our roof.”

“Yeah.” Sora carded through Riku's hair, tucked some behind an ear. “Hey. Can I do this?”

“Aren't you asking a second too late?” Sora couldn't really tell in the dark, but Riku was probably smiling. “Sure. Why ask at all?”

“Dunno.” Sora kicked the tree with a heel. “Seemed like I should.”

“Is it – you've been a little shy since we've come here.”

“I'm not _shy_.” Sora tugged on Riku's hair in reprimand. “I'm just... I'm not sure how far... Argh! We've never talked about this, so I don't know...”

Riku snickered into Sora's neck. “Is this about Kairi? You don't want to, I dunno, interfere?”

Sora felt himself relax. If Riku was laughing about it whilst glued to him, then he definitely wasn't about to brush Sora aside. Sora assumed a haughty voice. “What? You don't appreciate my chivalrous attitude?”

Riku laughed harder, but almost silently – mostly he just shook. One of his hands came up to clutch Sora's sleeve. “I appreciate it all right. You're just ridiculous.”

“I am thoughtful and selfless.”

Riku laughed hard enough that he lost his balance. He tried to stay upright by holding onto Sora, but he was the heavier one. They tumbled to the ground with twin yelps. Riku landed on his back and took a moment regaining his breath. Sora lifted himself up to give him space, but did not move from his perch across Riku's thighs.

He pressed a kiss to the corner of Riku's mouth, eliciting a chuckle. Riku's hand wound into Sora's hair. They were nose to nose, too close to keep their eyes open.

“Hold on,” Sora murmured. “I still think we need to talk.”

“Sure.” Riku's other hand came to rest on Sora's thigh. “Let me start. I like you. If the world weren't ending, I'd suggest we start dating. But.”

It was Sora's turn to laugh. “Like I'm gonna let the apocalypse stop me.” He leaned back to take in Riku's smile, now that his face wasn't shadowed. “Okay. From now on, we're in a monogamous, hopefully sexual relationship.”

Riku snorted. “Wow, smooth. Let me write up the contract. You want the signatures in blood or...?”

Sora punched him lightly. “A contract! What a good idea. I want a clause forbidding you from mocking my genuine attempts at – mph!”

Riku pressed his fingers tighter over Sora's mouth, and used his other arm to pulls Sora close enough to whisper into his ear. “Shh. I think we're in deep shit.”

Sora nudged at Riku's hand until it was removed. “How deep?” he whispered.

“Oh, you know.” Riku's voice trembled. “Just a small army of Dark Ones about to launch an attack on the caves.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, pacing. Pacing is hard, especially when you want to get to the next interesting thing right now, but the characters need time to think and talk. I agonised over this chapter until finally I decided that I am writing it for fun. I DO WHAT I WANT.
> 
> Also I can't believe this is chapter 30 already. It's so weird. My attention span is usually non-existent and I juggle personal projects like crazy, but not TTD apparently. I'm proud of myself.
> 
> I do want to start another multi-chapter fanfic, though (SnK fandom), and I can't decide whether to do so this summer, when I expect to have free time, or whether I should wait until I've finished writing TDD. As you've probably noticed, regular updates are important to me. I don't think I can (or want to) stretch myself to 2 chapters a week once school starts again. Ugh.


	31. Walled off

Their first day in Traverse Town passed without excitement. Leon hadn't managed to extricate himself and Cloud from Merlin's clutches, and so they ended up in the old man's spare room. Cloud didn't seem to mind. In fact, he didn't seem to mind any aspect of their situation. Leon wasn't sure what to think about his partner's apathy.

Merlin's spare room was tiny and didn't have a bed. What it did have, once Merlin had rummaged through every drawer and cabinet in his house, was a thick layer of blankets, sheets and coverlets. There wasn't a pillow in sight. Leon didn't mind. He preferred sleeping pillow-less.

The nest, as Leon chose to call it, was about the size of two single beds pushed together, as was the whole room. Leon listened to Cloud's even breathing in the dark, wondering at how comfortable he felt, sleeping in a confined space next to a man he barely knew.

“Leonhart.” Cloud's voice had a strange, breathy quality. “Stop fidgeting. You're keeping me awake.”

Leon blinked. “I have turned my head once, and scratched my shoulder. Do you mean I should stop breathing?”

“That would be nice, yes.”

Leon heard Cloud shift, disrupting the continuity of their covers. He grunted as cool air sneaked underneath. “What is it?” Leon refused to check, but he was fairly sure Cloud was staring at him.

He felt more than heard Cloud's hand reaching for him. Leon acted on reflex, and caught the man's wrist. He had no idea what to do with it once he had it.

Cloud was in the mood to fill the silence, luckily. “You are always so tense, Leonhart. It's bad for you.”

Leon regarded him suspiciously. His could see well enough in the dark, though he suspected Cloud's eyes, with a remnant of the strange glow still lurking in them, was at an advantage. Leon's fingers tightened around Cloud's wrist. “Why should it matter to you?”

“Hmm.” Cloud pushed against Leon's hold and found Leon's shoulder, dug his fingers in. There was a clear challenge in his grip. “It shouldn't, but you insist that we work together. I don't want to be stuck with a walking bundle of nerves.”

Leon's eyebrows lifted. He felt a twitch at the corner of his mouth. “And this is how you address your problem?”

Cloud leaned closer. “If you want to think of me as noble, you can imagine I'm doing this for the sake of humanity or something. But I'm not nearly that selfless.”

Leon closed the distance between them, pressing their noses and foreheads together. He sent Relic to work, mixing and blending with Cloud's, spreading around them both like mist. A feeling of calm spread from the points of contact all the way to Leon's toes. He closed his eyes. Cloud's fingers at his shoulder relaxed.

Leon remove Cloud's hand and felt the other man tense up. Leon smiled into the blankets. He transferred the hand lower and to the side, to the spot above his heart.

“Can't relax with you clawing at me,” he said. He pressed his thumb into Cloud's pulse point and took a moment to marvel at the difference in their heartbeats. Cloud's was calm, sluggish, even, as if the man was halfway hibernating. Leon was fairly certain it would pick up when Cloud needed it to, though.

Leon's own heartbeat was much stronger, though not necessarily fast at the moment. It really was a marvel of science. Only slightly bigger than a normal human heart, but operating at a much higher capacity, and not as easy to stop.

“Is your ribcage about to explode?” Cloud asked. He sounded awed.

“No. This is natural for me, and I can adjust it slightly. It's one of many small differences between me and a regular person.”

“How is it possible?”

Leon didn't want to spill his entire life story, but a hint or two shouldn't do any harm. “I might have mentioned before that I'm enhanced. On some worlds, I'd be labelled a cyborg, but by most standards I'm just – a step further towards physical perfection.”

“Huh.” Cloud spread his fingers over Leon's chest, settling more comfortably. “But you were born normal?”

“Yes.” Leon recalled Cloud's blasé comments about the man's background. “That's not true in your case, is it?”

“No. The most used term for what I am seems to be 'son of a tube'.” He shrugged. “It's not even that offensive.”

Leon considered asking for more detail, but refrained. He thought about the times various people from Hollow Bastion asked about his past. None of the resulting conversations had been enjoyable. Leon decided he preferred to wait for Cloud to volunteer information on his own terms.

He let go of Cloud's wrist. “Sleep. I'm merging our Relic, which should have a calming effect.” He thought about that. “Tomorrow, remind me to talk to you about the bonding process.”

“Yeah.” Cloud sounded half-asleep already.

Leon felt a touch of satisfaction. Cloud didn't seem like the type of person who would let himself relax in the company of someone he didn't trust. With that thought in mind, Leon willed himself to sleep.

*

They woke up early, when a noise like a thunderclap shook the ground. They threw their blankets aside and were out of the house as soon as they had put on their boots. Merlin greeted them in front of the house. He was feeding a handful of chickens. He had hiked up his robe to keep the seed in the fold, so high his bony knees were visible.

“What was that?” Leon asked. The walls couldn't have been breached. If that were the case, there would be much more screaming going on.

Merlin stopped cooing at the chickens. “Hm? Oh! That was just Old Ursula, our biggest cannon. She's very useful, but we can only shoot her a few times a day. Takes some effort to load her up, and then she heats up like the hard-working girl she is and you need to wait before touching.”

“I... see.” Leon exchanged a glance with Cloud. “We'd like to take a look at her, and the rest of your defences. If there's anything in need of maintenance--”

“Leon, please.” Merlin frowned from under his hat. “Breakfast first. You can't expect me to let you young lads go without filling your bellies.”

Leon noticed that Cloud's face went carefully blank. He himself wasn't doing much better. “It's all right. Both of us can go without food for--”

“Nonsense!” Merlin dropped his robe and let all of the seed fall. The chickens swarmed him, but he seemed unperturbed. “We are going to enjoy breakfast together before you go and risk your lives. And I won't hear any excuses.” Having said that, he stalked back into the house. He left the door open.

“We could simply go,” Cloud observed.

Leon rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Yes, and next time he'll use his tricks. Maybe he's right. If it was only the cannon--”

“Cannons shoot at targets.” Cloud crossed his arms and held Leon's gaze. “Why are you letting him order you around?”

Leon took in Cloud's silent judgement, and thought about it. He shrugged. “Merlin is technically the boss here. And a capable one, despite appearances.”

“Leonhart, he's insane.”

“He's an eccentric.” Leon moved towards the door. “Come inside. We'll try to continue this conversation via Relic. It's a good opportunity to practise.”

That got Cloud interested. He followed Leon inside. “How do we do it?”

Leon took a seat at the table, which was already strewn with various dishes and utensils. Merlin was making busy noises in the kitchen. Leon grabbed the closest plate, which happened to contain scrambled eggs, and started eating. He attuned his Relic to Cloud's and sent, _it's fairly easy. Just let Relic do the job._

Leon had no idea whether Cloud would receive the message. He was gratified when the man jerked in surprise. A dollop of blueberry jam fell off Cloud's knife and onto the table.

Cloud frowned, and kept frowning for a moment, before forcing himself to relax. _It's a bit tricky,_ he sent.

Leon chewed on his eggs, which kept his traitorous mouth from forming a smile. _It takes practice. The most important thing right now is that you remember my Relic's frequency. Otherwise, you might end up talking into the ether._

Cloud nodded. _Does this ability have limits?_

_Yes. You can only talk to me while I'm in shouting distance._

_I see._ Cloud chewed on his toast thoughtfully. _It's still very useful._

_Don't overuse it before we're fully bonded. I'm not sure how your Relic would take it, but mine might have issues._

Merlin chose that moment to emerge from the kitchen with two trays. One held a mountain of sandwiches, and the other a teapot and three cups. He had no trouble supporting both with his skinny arms, and set them down gracefully before taking his seat.

“I see you boys have come to appreciate the importance of breakfast.”

Cloud gave him a blank stare. “Sure.”

“You must keep this lesson in mind for the rest of your lives.”

“We will.” Leon used his best reassuring tone, which was just a shade away from disinterested. “While we eat, could you run us through the town's defences? I want to know where we stand exactly.”

“Certainly! As long as you have room in your stomachs.”

“Shouldn't you worry about rations?” Cloud asked.

Merlin waved him off. “We've only been besieged for a week. I believe the Dark Ones will be able to get to us much sooner than hunger, so we might as well enjoy ourselves.”

Merlin produced maps, and a couple of charts. It was strangely pleasant, Leon reflected, to sit at a table in the company of two men he respected, sip tea and listen to an impromptu lecture on Traverse Town's wall cannons. The real world and impending doom seemed very far away.

*

“I like what I'm seeing here,” Leon decided.

He and Cloud were on top of the city wall, inspecting it for damage and looking for potential weak spots. They hadn't found much. The walls were thick, made of a black, reflective stone, polished along the outer side to prevent potential attackers from climbing it. The surface on the top was rougher, thankfully. The fall would be enough to turn a person into a splatter of organs and body parts. Still, the citizens manned the cannons and patrolled the walls, seemingly unperturbed.

“These are pretty outdated,” Cloud commented, indicating the cannons.

“They are very outdated,” Leon agreed. “But not completely useless. The town has held out for a week.”

Cloud shrugged.

“It's impressive,” Leon told him. “How long did Midgard last?”

“Not a day. Despite our superior artillery.” He tapped the tip of his boot against the wall. “This strange stone is the key, I think.”

He moved to the edge and leaned in to take a look. Leon suppressed the urge to grab him by the belt.

“It doesn't look like it's made of blocks,” Cloud said. “It's as if the wall just... grew here naturally.”

Leon joined him on the edge. “I'm told it's a special feature of the material. They did stack blocks of it on top of each other, but in time, they fused. Merlin says the stone is a gift from a deity. My theory is that some dimension-hopper came here long ago and introduced nanotechnology.”

Cloud looked at the dark material he was standing on. “Huh.”

“The wall repairs itself, too. Xemnas was talking about sending our best sensor-type hosts here to investigate. That was before your densely populated world came under attack.”

“Sensor-type? Means you can't do it? Someone would be doing something useful, if you could.”

“I can try.” In Leon's case, the problem was not lack of ability, but the unpredictability of his Relic. Trying to figure out the composition of a wall shouldn't be enough to kill him – he hoped.

“I don't like being stuck here with nothing to do.” Cloud ran a hand through his blonde spikes, staring at the deceptively empty fields beyond the walls. “There's little we can do for these people, just the two of us. And they seem to be doing fine on their own.”

Leon shifted a little closer to Cloud, only centimetres away from touching, and tried exchanging tension between their Relic. He didn't feel much of a difference.

“The people will be fine while the Dark Ones attempt tactics to lure them out, but once they launch a concentrated attack – it's as Merlin said. No need to worry about surviving a long siege.” Leon mulled over the next thing he wanted to say. He had a feeling his new partner wouldn't like it. “There's something you need to be aware of, Cloud.”

“Yeah?”

“From the strategic standpoint, our lives are more valuable than this city.”

Barely noticeable tension slowly spread through Cloud's frame. “You mean, if push comes to shove, we abandon these people to their fates and save our own skin?”

“Yes.”

Cloud's eyes narrowed. “I'm pretty sure you couldn't do it.”

Leon blinked. It wasn't the rebuttal he expected. “What makes you say so?”

“You're soft.” Cloud jabbed Leon's arm with a finger, as if to demonstrate. “And... I prefer to think you're not heartless.”

Leon huffed in amusement and laid a hand over his heart. “We've already established that my heart is stronger than the average equivalent organ. But I could do it. I have done it. It's not something I'm proud of.” Leon scanned Cloud's face for signs of judgement, and found none. That was to be expected, though. Neither of them liked to show their emotions through facial expression. “And you will listen when I tell you to run.”

“Yeah.”

Not a single hint of emotion was visible in Cloud's body language. Leon could feel slight fluctuations in the electromagnetic balance of his Relic, though. He could only hope it wasn't an indication that Cloud was lying.

Leon shook his head, dismissing the thought. He'd come back to it later. “All right. Let's see if I can get acquainted with the wall.”

He looked around. Only a few people patrolled the top of the wall, staring out at the fields with conflicted expressions. None of them were closer than fifty metres away.

Leon sat down, crossed his legs, and closed his eyes. He imagined Relic as transparent tentacles sinking into the wall, sneaking in between individual cells to take readings. Leon wouldn't be able to analyse them without proper equipment, but Relic would store the data for him until he and Cloud returned to Hollow Bastion.

Leon wasn't sure how much time had passed when he opened his eyes. As far as he could tell, Cloud hadn't moved, but the sun was definitely higher. Leon grunted and stood, stretching his stiff joints. He heard the shot before he felt it ripping through his side. Leon had enough time to catalogue the wound as minor – no internal tissue ruptured, no damage to major blood vessels – before he realised he had lost his balance. He watched the fields below lurch closer, and closed his eyes again.

A jerk on his arm, and Leon stopped falling. He looked up to see Cloud, features tensed in concentration. Relief coursed through Leon, and was echoed by Cloud's Relic.

Then sharp pain shot through his wrist and forearm. Cloud yelped, and let go.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm recovering from a long and stressful trip, so forgive me if there are more typos than I usually let slip. And enjoy the cliffhanger!


	32. Teamwork

Leon held onto the edge of the wall. He had caught himself, but it was by no means a secure grip. Cloud's hands grabbed him again and pulled. The pain spiked, but this time both of them expected it. Leon gritted his teeth and climbed back to safety.

He very much wanted to collapse and slowly come off his adrenaline high. Instead, he shot invisible Relic-tentacles out in every direction and strained his senses.

“Did you see where the shot came from?” Leon asked.

“No, but I can trace the trajectory. Come on.”

Cloud was already moving. Leon found reassurance in his brisk, confident steps, and followed.

“Thanks for saving my life,” he said in monotone.

“No problem.” Cloud matched his tone. “Are we even yet?”

Leon thought about it. “I suppose so. Are we keeping count?”

“Of course. Isn't that the whole point of saving people?”

*

Riku stared at Sora, caught in indecision. He needed to get Kairi out of the caves, but he also needed to keep himself and Sora safe. The latter was his duty, but it was not going to take precedence over his best friend.

Riku got moving. “Come on. We need to grab Kairi and run.”

Sora followed, but he wrapped his fingers around Riku's wrist. “Riku, what about the people? We have to tell them. We have to give them a chance to defend themselves.”

They don't stand a chance either way, Riku didn't want to say. “If we start a panic, we'll be caught up in it, too.”

“I know.” There was a determination in Sora's voice and body language which Riku hadn't witnessed before. It worried him.

They ran into the closest tunnel and down, jumping over sleeping people, creating a commotion without half-trying. Riku's world narrowed down to the tunnels – his Relic had a limited range. He didn't like being blind to the approaching Dark Ones. He tried not to think about it as he used Relic to locate Kairi.

“There.”

Riku shifted his arm in Sora's grip until they were holding hands, and pulled the boy through a narrow tunnel. They arrived at a medium sized cave with many nooks and crannies. A couple of stars, visible through the hole in the roof, were reflected in the pool of still water in the centre of the cave. Green moss crawled up the walls and covered the floor in a thick carpet. The sick, wounded and elderly lay on thin blankets, attended by several younger people, among them Kairi. She was busy helping an injured woman drink from a chipped cup.

Sora took half a step ahead of Riku, and stopped. He probably realised that, no matter what he said, most of these people wouldn't be able to leave. The choice was to either let these people die together, or to get the young and able to try and save themselves, which would mean leaving the rest to their fate.

Kairi spotted Riku and Sora. She smiled, confused but not displeased. Riku almost shook with the need to grab her and run, but he waited until the woman in her arms had had her fill of water. Kairi said a few quiet words to her, then stood and approached Riku and Sora.

“What's this?” Kairi's eyes crinkled at the corners. “Holding hands now, are you?”

Riku glanced at Sora, who was tense all over and staring fixedly at the floor. Hopefully, he would cooperate. Riku grabbed Kairi's arm and steered her towards the door.

“I want to go for a walk. Right now. There's something important I need to show you.”

Kairi was baffled, but let herself be pulled along. Sora, on the other hand, stopped at the mouth of the cavern.

“Dark Ones – the aliens – are about to attack these caves,” he said firmly. He didn't raise his voice, but Riku had no doubt that everyone heard him. “You can run or stay, but if you choose to run, you need to do it immediately.”

Sora didn't wait to see the people's reaction. He turned into the tunnel and broke into a jog. Riku let himself be pulled, but made sure Kairi could keep up.

“What?” she gasped. “What's going on?”

“No time to explain,” Riku told her. “We need to be gone an hour ago.”

The tunnel they followed ran very close to one of the largest caves. The sounds of animated conversations and laughter caused both Sora and Kairi's steps to falter.

Kairi tried to tug her wrist out of Riku's grip. “We need to--”

“You go ahead,” Sora told them, releasing Riku. “I'll let these people know, then catch up.” Seeing Riku's frown, he smiled. “Don't worry, I'm good at crowds. I'll get through even if they swarm me.”

He didn't wait for an approval, just disappeared in one of the passages. Riku cursed, but kept running. Sora knew where to go, and he wasn't helpless. Riku was going to have to trust him.

The closer they got to the exit, the more dire their situation seemed. Riku could sense dozens of Dark Ones. There were several armoured types among them. Those wouldn't be able to enter the caves – the tunnels were too narrow – but they would made quick work of the people who got outside and weren't careful enough. Riku didn't want to think about it.

Once outside, Riku made a sharp turn to the right. He and Kairi rounded a rocky outcropping. There was a niche near the ground, low but wide and deep, hidden by shadows and surrounding greenery. Riku stopped.

“Will you stay here, or do I have to knock you out?” he asked.

Kairi shook her head. “Riku, what's going on? How do you know the aliens are coming? If you start a panic--”

“Trust me, they are here.” Riku grabbed Kairi's shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “There's no time to explain now, but I promise you'll understand soon. Now I need you to stay here while I go back for Sora. All right?”

Riku knew Kairi – better than anyone else, he liked to think. She was stubborn and brave, and would normally go after answers like a bloodhound on a trail. But Kairi knew Riku at least as well as he knew her, and she could tell that he was serious.

She nodded. “All right. But it'll be your fault if I die of centipedes.”

Riku blinked. He chuckled. “There are none under that rock, I swear. Get in there. We don't have time.”

Kairi went. Riku heaved a relieved sigh, turned on his heel and sped towards the cave entrance. He swept the ground with Relic to erase some of the trail he and Kairi had left.

*

“Who shot at me?” Leonhart asked calmly.

The man he was questioning shrunk in on himself and pressed back against the wall. They were standing within the city walls' shade, not easy to spot, which made them look like thugs, Cloud reflected. Not that they needed any particular location to achieve that effect.

“I think he'll sooner piss himself than give you an answer,” Cloud said.

He was leaning against the wall right next to the man, playing with Relic for practice. He materialised a small throwing knife, tossed it up a few times, then let it disappear. The man under interrogation shuddered every time a new knife appeared in Cloud's hand.

Leonhart sighed. “Look,” he told the man. “All I want is an answer. You made us chase you across most of Traverse Town – for no apparent reason, since you claim to be innocent. I actually believe you. You don't have the guts to shoot someone. But I want to know who did it, because I have as much right as you to walk around without having to worry about hapless assassins.”

The man moved on from shudders to full-body shaking. His teeth chattered. “I-I won't tell you a thing! You c-come here with your powers and ask for this and that. Why should we let you order us around?”

“Good question,” Leonhart said. “But I'm not going to answer it. Your town's leader has chosen to enter into an agreement with us, and the choice is his to explain.”

“Ha! He's an old man who doesn't fear death any more!”

That was very possibly true. “We're not here to argue about Merlin's character,” Cloud said. He dropped the knife, and it sunk into the ground right next to the man's foot before disintegrating. Cloud didn't look up from the sparks dancing across his fingertips. “What I would like you to do is stop bullshitting and tell us all about the people who want us dead.”

The man stammered. Leonhart's hand shot out to press him against the wall.

“Yes, I'm afraid we've noticed,” Leonhart said. “And we want to deal with it now. Fighting amongst ourselves will only hasten the fall of the city.”

“The city isn't falling.” The man forced some confidence into his voice, clenching his fists at his sides. He seemed to believe what he was saying. “The walls are too strong to breach, and our cannons have killed many Dark Ones. They haven't killed a single citizen, or destroyed a single cannon.”

Leonhart tilted his head. “That would be because the really big ones haven't shown up yet. Or the fliers. Those would be difficult to shoot.”

The man lost his grin. “F-fliers?”

Cloud turned to get a better look at Leonhart. He was curious, too. He recalled no fliers taking part in the invasion on Midgard.

“Fliers,” Leonhart confirmed. He noticed Cloud's interest and explained for his benefit, most likely. “They crop up if the ground troops are too slow or ineffective. Xaldin's theory is that some Dark Ones – most likely shadows – can evolve at will.”

“Have you seen them?” Cloud asked.

“Yes.”

That was hardly a satisfactory answer, but Cloud didn't press. Something in Leonhart's voice told him that it was a sensitive subject.

The man they were interrogating shifted. “You know a lot,” he admitted hesitantly.

“He does,” Cloud confirmed. “He's been fighting the Dark Ones for a while.”

Leonhart's eyebrows rose. “So have you.”

“But you've been working with real information and better technology.”

Leonhart huffed. “If anyone else said that, I would take offence.”

“Fine!” The man exclaimed. Leonhart's hand was pressing his shoulder into the wall. The man's face was twisted in pain. “I'll tell you! I'll even write a list!”

Leonhart stopped pushing him. “A list will be useless to us.” He paused. “Let's talk to Merlin. He might be able to work with names only.”

It was a short walk to Merlin's little house. While Merlin offered Leonhart's would-be-murderer tea and biscuits, Leonhart took Cloud aside to the most strategically sound location: they blocked the front door.

“Have I told you about the mysterious murders in Hollow Bastion?” Leonhart asked quietly.

Cloud stared. “I was there when you found that Cid guy. You mean there were more?”

“Just one. A researcher, and a Relic host.”

“You don't have suspects?”

“I have too many. Only another Relic host could have done it.”

Cloud gave himself a minute to mull over it. “You think it's connected to this guy?” He inclined his head towards the man now busily scribbling on a piece of paper provided by Merlin.

“I doubt it. Only myself, Saix, Xaldin and the other Observers have come here before. Saix is like an extension of Xemnas' will, Xaldin is dedicated to our cause. Riku and Yuffie happen to be just plain decent.”

“None of that excludes them.”

“No. I just don't think it's one of them.”

“You do know them better.”

Leonhart shrugged. “Which may lead to bias. I'm glad to have your help in this. You provide a fresh perspective, besides your skill and competence.”

Cloud felt the corners of his lips curl, very slightly. “That almost sounded like a compliment, Leonhart.”

Leonhart held his gaze. “It is one.”

Someone cleared their throat. Cloud blinked, noticed how close Leanhart's face was to his, and took a step back. He turned to look at the centre of the room, where Merlin and the would-be-murderer were staring back with raised eyebrows.

“If you two are done flirting?” Merlin said.

Leonhart grunted and moved to perch on the table. “You were free to interrupt us at any time. What have we got?”

Cloud followed, and rested his forearm on Leonhart's shoulder, leaning over him, just to be obnoxious. Leonhart didn't even blink. The piece of paper Merlin had dug up from a drawer was filled with a script Cloud couldn't decipher.

“We've got the beginnings of an organisation,” Merlin answered. He sounded uncharacteristically serious. “I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask for your help in dealing with it.”

Leonhart shrugged, forcing Cloud to readjust his position. “That's fine. We're rather bored.”

The Dark Ones didn't seem ready to breach the walls, and until that happened, Cloud and Leon could only watch them skulk about or flicker in and out of sight across the horizon. Cloud itched for the opportunity to test Relic out on real opponents. Throwing a disintegrating knife at a tree was about as exciting as throwing a real knife – except with Relic, Cloud could make adjustments mid-throw. Which would have a much more interesting effect on a moving target.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a downside to writing short chapters for a long fanfic. I'm running out of vaguely fitting chapter titles.


	33. The sky doesn't fall

Sora found a rock to stand on, raised his arms and tried to keep his voice both loud and calm.

“You need to evacuate the caves immediately. Dark Ones are coming. You'll be trapped.”

A murmur went through the cave. People raised their heads. Disbelief painted their expressions.

“We're going nowhere,” someone said. “The caves are the safest place.”

“Yeah. We'd be dead within a week outside.”

Sora thought so himself, but he didn't want to admit it. He had secretly hoped the people would have another hiding place in mind, perhaps a different cave system. If they didn't, staying and fighting was the best choice. Sora hoped they had weapons.

“Fine!” he called. “But stand your ground! This is your home. Don't let the Dark Ones take it from you.” He could feel Relic stirring around him and spreading out, anchoring by the people's heads and doing – something.

Young and old, men and women, raised their arms and shouted their agreement. They would not run. They'd die fighting if they had to, but that was a better death than waking up in the middle of the night with one's head between a Dark One's jaws. Or so Sora hoped. He abandoned his rock and headed for the exit. He didn't want to make Riku wait. Just as he was about to enter the tunnel, the whole cave shook.

Sora caught his balance, blinking. He looked around. Judging by the surprised faces, earthquakes were not a common occurrence here. Another tremor. Dirt and small pebbles rained down from the opening in the ceiling. Sora's gut went cold. Someone handed him a piece of fabric to tie over his mouth. Sora did so, no longer thinking about his route. He needed to be out, but so did all these people, and they were likely to know the safest way.

Coughing sounds came from the tunnel, but their source was obscured by dust. Sora recognised the voice and rushed in to grab Riku and pull him into the cave. He brushed dirt off Riku's hair and passed a piece of cloth to him.

Clouds of dust rolled around them, slowly filling the cave. The centre was mostly clear, however, thanks to the light drizzle trickling in through the hole in the rock.

“They have armoured types,” Riku said, tying on the cloth. His voice was a little muffled. “They might be trying to get us to come out.”

“Smart. The rain makes it impossible to smoke us out.” Sora paused. “And I haven't seen Dark Ones handle fire. Huh.”

Riku grabbed his shoulder and lead him along the wall of the cave. He could probably find his way out blindfolded, so Sora assumed it was for his benefit. “Some are smart enough. Listen, we need to leave.”

Sora bit his lip. “I can't. These people are not prepared for--”

“And how are you going to help them?” Riku shook his head. “Believe me, Sora, if I knew of a way to save them, I would. I've tried. Ansem doesn't want to launch an evacuation because of the location of the Threshold site. Too exposed. We'd be slaughtered.”

Guilt squeezed Sora's insides. He should have known that Riku would have tried to save his people. They'd need a miracle to help this world, and they weren't getting one.

“Let's go,” Riku said. “I left Kairi in a hiding place, but it's probably not safe now.”

They broke into a run the moment they were out of the main cave. They rushed past frightened and confused people. Sora tried to avoid looking at their faces. Riku kept a secure grip on Sora's hand. He stopped and pressed them both to the wall seconds before another tremor shook some rocks off the ceiling.

Sora held his breath until it was over. He gasped in relief.

Riku cursed. “One escape route cut away. Come on, before we really get stuck.”

They were in sight of the entrance when the next tremor came. Riku cursed again and sped up, pushing Sora in front. They made it out of the cave, coughing and gasping. As the dust setttled, Sora sat on his haunches to catch his breath.

He laughed. “That was awesome. Let's not do it again.”

He looked up to see Riku sort of fold into himself and slowly settle on the ground. There was blood in his silvery hair.

Sora was by his side instantly, probing Riku's scalp with gentle fingers. There was a gash above Riku's right brow, bleeding rather profusely, but the bone underneath didn't seem cracked. That meant nothing, of course. A head injury was a head injury.

“Gotta get you into one of those tanks,” Sora murmured. He pulled Riku's arm around his shoulders and stood with some effort.

Riku muttered something unintelligible. His eyes were closed, but his legs made the effort to put one draggy step in front of the other. Sora sighed, grabbed the back of Riku's belt, and started walking.

“It's a shame you didn't tell me whereKairi's hiding place is,” he said conversationally. “It's also a shame that, of the two of us, the one who can both use Relic properly and tell where the Dark Ones are is now unconscious.” Sora shook his head at the unfairness of life. “It's fine. I bet Kairi knows a safe path to the beach.”

All he could do was go wherever his feet took him and hope Kairi turned up sooner rather than later. It wasn't an ideal situation, but Sora still had options. He tried not to think about head injuries and lack of immediate treatment. The stars sure where pretty where the clouds didn't cover them up.

*

Sora eventually had to call it a night and set up camp among a bunch of trees. He made Riku comfortable under a palm-like bush with large enough leaves to catch most of the rain, then dug an energy bar out of his pocket and ate it. While drinking water from a slightly squashed plastic bottle, which had occupied another pocket in Sora's very practical trousers, he considered the best ways to keep Riku hydrated. He ended up pouring water down Riku's throat and hoping Relic and natural reflex wouldn't let him drown.

It had been dark when Sora settled them down to rest because of the rain, but quickly got pitch black as more clouds rolled in. The night was strangely quiet. Sora expected the sounds of a hill crumpling under the Dark One's assault, but that was apparently not in the programme. Even when the drizzle stopped, Sora couldn't sleep.

The sky, or at least the narrow slices of it visible between treetops, was full of stars. A breeze stirred the leaves of the deciduous plant specimens. Insects and other critters chirped and skittered about, not too bothered by the demise of another bastion of humanity.

The last time Sora had felt such peace in his surroundings had been back in the ruins of Midgar, after the rains had come and made dirt out of dust, and some pioneering species of weeds had begun claiming the city as theirs.

Sora wondered if maybe that was the point. Maybe the Dark Ones didn't destroy worlds, only their human occupants. Maybe once that was over – assuming there was a limited number of worlds they had to cleanse – they would go back where they came from and let life resume its course uninterrupted.

It was a crazy theory, Sora knew. The Dark Ones showed no interest, murderous or friendly, in anything that wasn't human.

*

Merlin's list of names was only halfway useful. All of the names were assumed – which the man they had captured must have known, and that was the only reason he had shared the information. He'd been locked in Merlin's cellar and given time to reflect on his life. Instead of waiting for him to come around, Leonhart wanted to continue the investigation and teach Cloud something useful while they were at it.

“Think of it as extending your range, not making your senses any sharper. For example, that man on the wall.” Leonhart pointed to the dot that maybe sort of stuck out against the afternoon sky. Cloud would have pegged it for an unevenness in the dark stone. “Don't focus on him so much as on the distance. Ease through it. It's a lot like zooming in with a camera.”

They were sitting under an old oak in the middle of a small square, hidden from view unless someone knew what they were looking for. The part of the wall where the man allegedly stood was visible through a gap between fresh, green leaves. Spring had only just taken hold in Traverse Town.

The square was not the hub of city life, but enough people walked across it to make it a good listening spot. It was also in the part of town where less than innocent meetings were likely to take place, according to Merlin. The City Watch avoided visiting deliberately, hoping to limit illegal proceedings to this particular space space. They worked via inside agents when they absolutely had to. The City Watch generally dealt with crimes no more serious than petty theft, and even that was rare in times of shared crisis.

Cloud focused on the distance as per instruction. He imagined it like a golden rope, glistening in the sun, imagined grabbing it with both hands and pulling his awareness forward. He did zoom in – the image of the wall was now enlarged in his mind, but blurry and useless. He said as much.

Leonhart cracked open one eye and gave Cloud that infuriating not-smile. “It takes practice,” he said, voice low. “Unless you're particularly talented at it, the sensory side of using Relic is the most difficult to master.”

Cloud blanked his face before the frown could set in. “Difficult or no, I want to learn. Good eyes and ears can make all the difference.” He sighed and settled more comfortably against the uneven bark of the oak.

Leonhart looked thoughtful. “We can try something else, but not here. Not until we're back in Hollow Bastion.”

“What's that?”

“The Link. Remember? When you were still in the tank--”

“I remember.” It had been his first human interaction in a long time. “Sounds good. Let's do it.”

“Ha.” Leonhart closes his eye. “The thing is, spending time in the Link will cement our partnership. There'll be no going back.”

Cloud didn't see the problem. “So? We work well enough together, and I sure as hell can't be bothered to go looking for another partner candidate. From what you've said, partnering up is the only way I get to see some fighting.”

“Correct. But it is for life.”

That gave Cloud pause. “What do you mean?”

Leonhart sighed. He opened both eyes and even turned to look at Cloud properly. “Once you're partners with someone, staying apart is pretty much impossible. Relic gets attached, learns to rely on the other person to the point that losing them is as crippling as losing a limb and half of your mind.”

Cloud gaped. “And people do it voluntarily?”

“It's either that or get yourself killed one day swatting a fly, because Relic has had enough.”

They fell silent. After a while, Cloud said, “I need to think about it.”

“Yeah. That's why I told you now. There's time.”

After another stretch of silence, Cloud asked, “how come you haven't partnered up with anyone yet?”

“I was always the odd one out. Whenever a likely candidate appeared – and believe me, forced partnerships between people who don't match never work out – they ended up dead. It's been like this for over a year. Then we recruited Yuffie. I was prepared to bond with her.”

“Huh. You're one unlucky bastard.”

“You don't know the half of it.”

*

Sora heard it by accident, when thirst pushed him out of heavy slumber and into a fit of tossing and turning. His eyes shot open, though for a moment he had no idea what had caused his fear. Then he heard it again – soft clicking, nearby – and had to struggle to keep his breathing even.

He felt Riku's warm bulk at his back. It was a comfort.

The clicking and occasional hissing got closer. Sora pushed himself to all fours, trying to stay silent, then up into a crouch. It was fine. He had faced Dark Ones before, without Relic – except back then, he'd had his trusty pipe. Sora thought about his mace wistfully.

There was a flash of light, and a familiar weight settled into Sora's hand. He swung in a slow arch, dumbfounded. He tried to press the shock button, but it wouldn't budge. So the mace only looked and felt like what he remembered. Fair enough.

Loud clicking pulled Sora out of his awed reflections. The flash of light, Sora realised, scrambling to stand. Not the smartest thing to do when he was trying to remain unnoticed. It was too late for that, so all Sora could do was hope there were no more than two Dark Ones in the vicinity.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've finally figured out how to get to the ending I have planned for this story. I still have no idea when I'll reach that point, but the wordcount is so going to go beyond 100k.
> 
> Also I doodled a scene from a recent chapter. Check it out if you're interested :)
> 
> http://tea-maker.tumblr.com/post/91364019875/another-otp-doodle-or-who-needs-correct-anatomy


	34. Deep darkness

Bright spots still danced before Sora's eyes, but he swung in the direction he thought the clicking was coming from. The mace connected with something, but only dragged along its surface. Trying to scratch a Dark One to death would probably not work.

There were two, he thought. They circled him and Riku, for some reason hesitant to attack. The thought that they were biding their time until reinforcements arrived chilled Sora's blood. But he couldn't be reckless and attack first. The moment he stepped away from Riku, the other boy was done for.

Sora gritted his teeth and waited. He could win a match of patience with bloodthirsty monsters.

The attacked at the same time, one lunging with its jaw at Sora's legs, the other swiping its claws a bit higher. Sora ducked, narrowly avoided stepping on Riku. He struck one Dark One's paw with the mace, but there wasn't enough weight behind the hit to cause any damage.

Riku made noises, probably alerted to the danger by Relic. Sora arranged himself so that his weight was spread a little more evenly, and waited. With two Dark One's circling him, there was no point in trying to keep the enemy from flanking him.

Something shuffled in the bushes, probably another Dark One. There was a sound like rock hitting carapace. A Dark One stumbled and fell over, front legs tangled. Sora jumped at the opening, turning around while swinging. He caught the other Dark One in the muzzle and followed with a strike from high above his head, and another for good measure.

Another rock hit. Claws raked Sora's back, and his attempt to stifle his scream resulted in a squeaky hiss. He turned, dealt with his confused attacker. He drove the point of the mace into the spots where the back of the Dark Ones' skulls joined their spines. Then he sat down, and just breathed.

“Riku?” came Kairi's voice from the direction of the bushes. If Sora remembered the layout of his surroundings correctly.

“He's kind of unconscious,” Sora said. “Come out. You'll have to help me carry him.”

Kairi was there in an instant. She fell to her knees and groped around until she found Riku. “What happened?”

“He got brained by a piece of cave. I think he'll live if we can take him to the medics back home.”

It took some concentration, but Sora managed to dispel the mace. He dragged himself over to the other two and pulled Riku's arm over his shoulders. He paused, realised that he would be dragging Riku backwards, and changed position. He pulled the both of them to their feet.

Kairi slid under Riku's other arm. “Where's that home of yours?”

Sora chuckled tiredly. “Not far. You just need to get us to that little island.”

“Uh. That doesn't make sense, but okay, an island might be a good place to hide. The sea makes a lot of noise.”

“I mean a specific island. Riku said he used to spend a lot of time there?”

“Oh.” Kairi started moving. Sora had no choice but to follow. “That one. No problem, I guess, but I hope you have a way to supply us with fresh water.”

They shuffled on under the cover of small, gnarled trees. It was less about hiding than about not feeling entirely exposed. Sora tried to carry most of Riku's weight. Kairi didn't say a word of complaint, but she had to be tired after days of rationed food and little to no sleep. Sora remembered a similar episode in his life all too well.

They reached the mouth of a tunnel, hidden between two outcroppings in the side of a cliff. It was wide, enough for an elephant to pass through, and pitch black. Cold breeze flowed from within, periodically, like the exhales of a dead thing.

“Strange,” Kairi murmured, slowing her steps. “There should be tall grass here.”

Sora glanced around the immediate surroundings of the tunnel's entrance, but night and the cliff's shadow prevented him from seeing much. He shrugged and opened his mouth to suggest they take the normal, above-ground route, when he heard the clicking language.

Sora's eyes met Kairi's. They moved into the tunnel without exchanging a word. Kairi pushed them close to a wall, pressing one hand against it, probably to stay oriented in the darkness. Her steps were nearly silent. Sora moved carefully, as well, but Riku was a problem. His shoes dragged on the ground, every now and then disrupting a stone or twig and causing additional clatter. Sora winced each time it happened, but couldn't fix it. They couldn't carry Riku. Kairi needed one of her hands free to navigate.

The further they walked, the more Sora felt they were moving towards something bad. It was either intuition or Relic, and when Riku started making noises, Sora's worries that it was the latter were confirmed. He wasn't terribly surprised when he heard something huge move just ahead of them. He sensed it, too, like swimming and being buffeted by water disturbed by something large going past him. He felt like he should be falling over under the pressure of it.

Sora adjusted his grip on Riku, briefly touching Kairi's hand. She was shaking, but kept a steady pace. She had the guts to become a Relic host, Sora thought. She'd be awesome.

The huge thing ahead took a step that shook the ground, then another. Sora could only hope it was simply going outside and hadn't spotted the intruders. He had a good idea of what the thing was, but refused to name it even in his head.

For every ground-shaking step, Sora and Kairi managed to pull themselves and Riku about two metres towards their goal. When it felt like the thing was almost upon them, Riku raised his head sluggishly. Sora immediately slapped a hand over his mouth. Riku struggled, then stopped with a sharp jerk. Probably thanks to Kairi.

_Oh fuck_ , Riku said, though his mouth didn't move.

Right. They were only able to communicate through the language barrier thanks to Relic. Sora exhaled in relief and removed his hand from Riku's face. Now if only he could figure out how to use Relic consciously.

_That is a gigantic armoured Dark One ahead of us. What the fuck. What are we doing in this place_ , Riku thought at Sora.

Sore jabbed him in the side.

_Ow. Okay, yeah, we should have not skipped that lesson before coming here. Talking through Relic is really easy, as long as you're in range. Just... go as if you were speaking normally. You can even mouth the words, it helps at first._

Sora tried. Nothing happened.

_Come on, Sora. You can do this. You've been using Relic for a while now, you just need to – think back to talking to Kairi or someone. How that felt in your head._

_Felt normal_ , Sora tried again.

_Yeah, that's the point_ , Riku replied. _We're almost on top of the Dark One now._

Sora would have cheered, but that stopped him cold. _Kairi is leading us to your island._

_I gathered. She'll slip into a smaller tunnel any time now. If the Dark One doesn't notice us first._ There was a pause. _It's strange. This tunnel leads deep into the ground. Some university had sent a team to investigate it once. They couldn't find the end of it even after a couple of two-days-long excursions._

Sora was amazed at Riku's ability to chatter in the face of death. He blamed it on the head injury, and the fact that Riku had faced giant Dark Ones before.

Riku regained his footing, though he remained unsteady enough that Sora and Kairi still had to support him. He did manage to move a fraction more quietly. It was just as well – scuttling sounds echoed through the tunnel, announcing the arrival of smaller Dark Ones.

_They're not coming in from outside_ , Riku announced. There was a gasp. _Kairi, relax, they can't hear me. Just stay calm and do what I say. We're getting out of this._

These were the words Sora had wanted to hear. All three of them were determined to survive, and they worked well together. They would be fine. Their problem had been the lack of visibility, and Riku solved that neatly.

_The tunnel we want seems unoccupied, and we're almost there_ , Riku reported.

Sora decided it was time for him to get a hang of Relic. He tried to keep his telepathic voice quiet, to prevent startling anyone. _How do we make sure nothing follows us in?_

Riku's shrug was feeble. _We don't. We just hope they don't notice._

It almost went as planned. Already inside the entrance of the tunnel, Sora stepped on something squishy that retracted at the contact, almost causing him to fall over.

_What was that?_

The arm Riku had slung across Sora's shoulders tightened, then pushed. _A probe. Go._

Sora stumbled a step, took another, felt the ground shake and realised what Riku meant to do. Anger and fear boiled through his veins. He was back at the entrance in one leap, mace materialising with a flash.

“Sora,” Riku hissed. He was probably blinded.

Sora had no time to explain. “Get back. Grab Kairi and go, I'll catch up.”

He didn't have time to give Riku an encouraging push, or to make sure he did as he was told. Instead, Sora opened up to Relic – unconsciously at first, panic leaving him wide open to the impulses of what he at first thought was instinct and adrenaline. It felt like energy filling his veins, making him move faster, hit harder.

So Sora did hit. The entrance to the tunnel was already narrow and uneven, made of soft, sedimentary rock. It was difficult to get a good swing in, but it also meant that only a few were needed to smash the walls and build a stone barricade. Sora backed off as he went. Within a few frantic minutes, he blocked about eight metres of tunnel.

He had no idea how he'd done it. It didn't seem physically possible, not with a half-corporeal mace. But maybe that was how it had worked. Maybe the mace didn't smash the rock, but cut into it thanks to Relic magic. Sora was in no state of mind to question it.

He came out of his daze, breathing hard. His heart beat frantically, all of his limbs shook. There was no way he could catch up with Riku and Kairi. He tried to take a step and his legs stopped supporting him. Sora landed on his knees, then sat down. His ears were ringing, he felt like there was too much pressure in his skull. Something dripped from his nose, and Sora suspected it wasn't snot.

Was this how an overload felt? Sora didn't want to end up like Axel, kept barely alive to be experimented on. He'd rather let the Dark Ones tear him to shreds.

*

They came at night, of course. Who would let up such an advantage? Cloud was prepared, because he would have done the same had he been the creature's commander. Leonhart didn't seem shocked, either, when the night erupted with screams. He was out of bed and climbing out of the window two steps ahead of Cloud.

He pressed his back to the wall and stopped Cloud from jumping off the windowsill with a hand to his chest. “Fliers. We're in trouble.”

Cloud frowned, scanning the sky. He tried to use Relic to make adjustments to his vision. It gave him a clearer view of the dark shapes soaring high above the buildings. “They look like flying lizards. Should be easy to incapacitate them.”

“If they come down, yes. But I'm worried that they're going to carry others above the wall instead.”

That would be a problem. If the fliers worked carefully and prioritised their own survival over doing things quickly, the city could be assaulted every night – and day, should the Dark Ones feel like it – until all the people were dead.

“We need to shoot them down. The cannons?”

“Turned outwards and too heavy to aim at fast targets.”

“Well, shit. Can you grow wings?”

Leonhart made a sound of amusement, fisted his hand and delivered a sort of sideways punch to Cloud's chest. “I guess I'd better learn. My skill with a bow and arrows is somewhat lacking.”

“Too bad. Maybe a slingshot, then?”

 


	35. Desperate measures

A voice reached Sora's ears, but it was garbled, distant and strange, as if someone was trying to speak under water. Touch registered as an echo – Sora's mind empathised with, rather than controlled, his body. But the touch brought relief, reduced some of the pressure and the pain behind Sora's eyes. Then he was floating, pressed against something warm and bigger than him. He felt safe enough to let his consciousness go.

He came to under a blue sky that stretched far from horizon to horizon. Sora gasped and fell off Riku's back. He landed in salty water. His limbs weren't responding and for a second, he worried he'd drown, but two hands grabbed his and pulled him upright. He breathed, head hung low, and didn't bother pushing wet bangs out of his eyes.

“Sora?” A hand pressed against his cheek and it was funny to Sora that he didn't have to look, he knew it was Riku. “Sora, talk to me. If there's brain damage--”

Sora laughed. “I wouldn't know.” He was short of breath, like he'd been running.

There was a relieved sigh. “I'm so glad,” Kairi said. “I thought you were dying.”

“I feel like I have.” Sora shook water out of his hair like a dog and straightened. He noticed the island where he and Riku had landed upon arrival in this world. It was so very close. “Are we... going to be okay?”

“That remains to be seen. C'mon.” Riku grabbed Sora's wrist and pulled him towards the island.

Kairi splashed behind them. “Riku, all the people in the caves...”

“I can't do anything for them. You know this. I've barely managed to get the three of us this far.”

Sora looked at the blood in Riku's hair. “That's mostly because you have shit luck.”

They made it to the far side of the island and skulked in the shadows. Riku pulled out a small device, like a miniature tablet, and tapped at it rapidly. After a moment, he exhaled through his nose. “I got through. Hollow Bastion is responding and we're almost out of here.”

Sora couldn't stop the grin if he wanted to. He was shaking with relief. “When will they pull as out?”

“In a couple of minutes, they just need to--”

Riku was interrupted by a long, hissing screech. A sudden wind flapped their hair and bent the trees above their heads almost parallel to the ground. The smile died on Sora's lips.

“Kairi, stay where you are.” Riku was already scrambling into the bushes on the edge of the island.

Sora followed him without thinking. They manoeuvred themselves to a spot where they could watch the shore of the main island. And it was a sight to see.

A huge creature stood on the white sand. It had the shape of a lion, though its mane was made of tentacles and it beat its giant leathery wings, creating bigger and bigger waves. Smaller Dark Ones milled around its paws, and some got trampled for their trouble. The huge one seemed focused on the small island where Sora, Riku and Kairi were hiding.

“What is that thing?” Sora asked, barely more than a gasp.

Riku's mouth was twisted in an ugly grin. “You don't remember stepping on it in the cave? I wonder if it holds a grudge.”

The Dark One took a step that shook the ground. Waves crashed against the small island. They only needed to get a little taller to wash over it.

Sora couldn't take his eyes off the creature. “We're done for, aren't we?”

“Maybe not.” Another rumbling step spurred Riku into movement. He gestured for Sora to follow and scrambled to where Kairi was waiting. “Get up here,” he told her.

Riku pulled them all out of the meagre cover the bushes and palm trees provided, and into plain sight in the middle of the small island. Then he pulled out his tabled and didn't look up even as the giant Dark One took another ground-shaking step.

Kairi was trembling. She grabbed Sora's hand, eyes glued to the monster. “What is that? Where are we going to run?”

She wasn't willing to give up yet. Sora found it encouraging. He squeezed her hand and tried on a grin. “It's one of the black creatures. And I don't think there's anywhere to run.”

“You might be wrong,” Riku murmured. “Hollow Bastion has our coordinates. So now it's a waiting game.” He slipped his tablet back into a pocket and watched the approaching monster. “It's slow.”

It was true. The Dark One seemed disorientated and shied away from sunlight. Each of its steps was ponderous and careful, but covered a good distance. The monster already towered over the small island.

“Not like it has to walk far,” Sora said. “And the waves are a problem.”

They crashed against the rocky side of the island and climbed over it, spraying Sora and the others right in the faces.

“If we end up fighting, we're so going to drown.”

“Nah, we're not.” Riku's blade appeared in his hand, startling a gasp from Kairi. “We'll have to climb the thing. See any paths, Sora?”

Sora squinted. “Up the front legs, except the tentacles are in the way. Uh. You could ride a tentacle.”

Riku grimaced. “No, thank you. I'd rather go through its maw.”

“What, really? You prefer to battle its tongue?”

Riku spared Sora a scathing glance. “I don't think I want to die here, if you'll be the one to tell the story.”

Sora opened his mouth to reply, but Kairi's hand moved up his arm. Fingernails dug into his skin and he winced. “Ouch.”

“What _are_ you?” Kairi asked, fear strangling her to the point the she could only whisper. “How can you be joking at a time like this?”

The Dark One's shadow fell over the stretch of island to their left. The huge head bent low and fat droplets of water dripped from the ends of squirming tentacles.

Riku adopted a battle stance. “Don't move from this spot,” he said, and charged, just as a huge paw crashed into the island.

Dirt and sand flew every which way. Sora pulled Kairi into a protective hug and covered his eyes. He blinked the dust away and watched Riku slash through the Dark One's paw. Riku twisted and swung upward next, cutting of a good metre off a tentacle. It wriggled wildly where it fell near Sora's right foot. He kicked it off the island with a shudder.

Another tentacle smacked Riku in the chest, forcing him back. He landed on light feet a step in front of Sora. Blood was trickling over his neck.

“Riku!” Kairi exclaimed.

Sora let her go and grabbed Riku's arms. “Okay, stop it now.”

Riku licked his lips. “Can't.” He did something that felt like and electric shock. Sora yelped and let go.

The Dark One seemed confused. It was tilting its head, trying to get a good look at its attacker. Eventually it laid its muzzle down on the island and opened its jaws. Sora felt cold dread wash over his bones. If Riku entered that maw he probably wouldn't be coming back out. Sora's blade materialised in his hand without a single conscious thought involved. The next second he was slashing at tentacles and a huge paw, moving like he'd never moved before. Relic guided him.

Sora registered Riku jumping onto the Dark One's nose and going for its eyes. It was a good strategy if Sora could keep distracting the monster. Problem was, he didn't have Riku's ability to feel when a tentacle was flying at him.

A rock whistled past him and sank into the mass of tentacles, then another. Sora risked a glance back and saw that Kairi was providing cover fire. It seemed to have the desired result – the tentacles flailed, searching for their assailant. They had to be some sort of feelers, Sora realised, not just extra appendages to smack things around. If that were so, hitting many at once should be very distracting.

Sora glanced up at where Riku had already gouged out one of the Dark One's eyes and was battling tentacles to get at the other.

The Dark One began to rise. No time like the present, Sora thought. He wasn't sure why he knew how to do it, he just did. Energy gathered somewhere around his shoulder, pulsing warmth. It slid down his arm, pooled in his blade. When he slashed at the tentacles, there was a burst of light, and the warmth in Sora's shoulder and arm disappeared. The Dark One shuddered.

He backed off, feeling disoriented. That was when he noticed it – a slow discolouration around the edges of his vision, the world blurring into sepia. It took Sora a moment to remember the strange connection between the Threshold and colours. He yelped.

“Riku! Get back here!”

Because that was how the world worked, Riku chose that moment to fall off the Dark One's snout and almost get smashed by its paw. Sora ran towards him. He wasn't sure how much time he had, or whether they'd have a second chance if they missed their ride. He didn't want to find out the hard way.

Sora slid to a halt by Riku's side, holding the blade up in a way that would offer no protection at all, except there was a dull explosion of wind, a muted thunderclap, and Sora didn't stop to analyse it. He grabbed Riku and dragged him over to where Kairi stood.

“It's okay,” he managed to tell her, and then there was no air to breathe. Sora registered ear-popping pressure and the sensation of being pulled in every direction at once.

*

“I wasn't being serious,” Cloud said.

Leon looked up at him from his crouch and couldn't help a soft chuckle at the man's confused frown. “It's all right if you only have good ideas when you don't mean to. I can work with that.”

They were making slingshots. It was sheer coincidence that Traverse Town happened to have a huge rubber band factory – or something along these lines, anyway. Possibly conveyor belts, Leon hadn't paid attention.

The idea was to throw nets, wires, ropes – anything the flying Dark Ones might get tangled in, then take care of the creatures on the ground. The slingshots themselves were supposed to catch the fliers' attention, by shooting high and maybe hitting a Dark One or two. The main offensive force was stationed on rooftops with nets and ropes weighed by stones. There were also teams with wires stretched between building, and nets at the ready in case an incautious Dark One strayed too close to the ground. The walls had had to be temporarily abandoned – so high up, without cower, the people manning the cannons would be easy pickings.

Leon had a slingshot attached to a street lamp and a part of an iron bar in somebody's window. Its accuracy would be abysmal, but that wasn't the point. As long as they could annoy the fliers into coming in low, they would be able to bring them down.

Cloud was sitting on a crate with a gun in his lap. He looked entirely at home with it – it was Hollow Bastion make, modern enough to be familiar to Cloud.

“All right,” Leon said, standing. He dusted off his hands. “Let's try it.”

Cloud gave him an unreadable look. “This is a silly plan.”

“You got a better one?”

“No.”

“Then shut up and shoot.”

Cloud heaved a put-upon sigh and stood. He aimed, released a volley of shots towards the sky. Two Dark Ones screeches and sped up their movements. Leon watched impatiently as they struggled to locate the source of their injury. Cloud pulled the trigger again. A Dark One appeared to notice him and dived.

Leon took his time aiming. He released a shot consisting of a length of chain and some random sturdy objects attached to it. He was amazed when he actually hit the Dark One. The creature didn't get entangled completely, but one of its back legs caught onto the chain, and the weight pulled the creature to the ground.

Cloud was there in an instant, swinging his giant blade. The Dark One barely managed a hiss as it died.

“I can't believe this worked,” Cloud said, returning to his post. He brought the chain along.

“My only other option was trying to cause a storm,” Leon said, loading his slingshot. “Which would probably kill me, not to mention the fact that no one wants to fight during a storm.” He felt Cloud's gaze focus on him, but didn't look up.

“Would you do it? Would you die for this insignificant place?”

“Hey now. The people here deserve to live. Besides, the probability of me dying if I go all out is only about eighty percent with you here.” I also feel responsible for your safety, Leon didn't add.

“Hmm.” When Leon glanced at him, Cloud was tracing the gun with his fingers. “Is there a way to lower that figure?”

Leon blinked. They were having an awfully relaxed conversation, considering the fact that Dark Ones circled overhead. “Sure. Finish the bonding process and work up to a more symbiotic relationship.”

“How?”

“We don't need to do anything. It comes with time.”

Cloud looked strangely unhappy about that response. Leon shrugged and went back to work.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm starting to think about discontinuing this fic. It's taking time away from my other, original project, ad it just hasn't been rewarding recently. I still have about ten more chapters written out, so I'd post those and only then put TDD on hiatus...
> 
> I don't know. I might change my mind. It's just important to me to keep my other projects moving without burning out, and this story isn't helping at the moment.


	36. More waiting

Sora awakened to the familiar layout of a Hollow Bastion infirmary. He sat up slowly, feeling dizzy and numb, and looked around. No sign of Riku or Kairi, just a young medic at the desk by the door.

“Hi,” Sora croaked. He cleared his throat and tried to ignore the panic rising in his gut. “Uh. Where are my friends? Did they... get here?”

“One moment.” The medic took a couple of sweeps at his tablet before putting it down. Then he approached Sora with a warm smile. “Hello. I'm glad to see you recover so quickly. There's a glass of water on the bedside table, you should--”

“My friends,” Sora repeated, grinding his teeth. “Are they safe?”

“You mean Riku and the girl? They're fine.”

“Oh.” Sora let his shoulders slump. He reached for the glass and drained it in a few gulps.

“Riku'll be stuck in a tank for another day I think,” the medic continued. “And the girl we had to sedate to run tests. She was in shock.”

Sora winced in sympathy. “Can I be there when she wakes up? I might be able to help.”

“Of course.” The medic looked pleased by the idea. “I'll call Aerith and let her know, and she can mention it to Xemnas.”

Sora felt his eyebrows climb his forehead. “Why?”

“New policy. The bosses want to stay updated on everything the Relic hosts are doing. After the security breach and the incident – well.”

“Oh.” Sora hadn't thought about Cid much after he had learned about the man's death. It was painful, and unfair, and Sora had no time for directionless rage. “That's smart, I guess.”

The medic shrugged. “Seems annoying to me, but it's probably only temporary. Until they figure out what happened.”

“Yeah.” Sora threw back the sheet covering his legs and was pleased to find that he was wearing trousers. He wondered if his new clothes had survived. He stood and stretched – and winced at the sharp pain in his back. He dimly remembered a Dark One's claws tearing into him. Funny that he hadn't felt the injury while splashing in salt water. “All right. I suppose I need to see someone about what happened out there?”

“Yup. I'll arrange for a meeting with the boss.”

Sora noticed the singular form. “Is Leon still in Traverse Town.”

“Yeah. We haven't been able to establish a connection with him. Happens sometimes, when Threshold gets stretched too thin. Now that you're back, though, things ought to work out fine.”

Twenty minutes and one call later, Sora found himself in Xemnas' office, though the man himself was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Saix perched on the desk, tablet in hand, ready to take notes in case Sora managed to produce valuable information.

Sora felt a little smug when he recounted the bit about the giant tunnel. “It looked like they were moving in and out of it a lot, they stamped out an obvious path. Riku will be able to tell you how many there were inside, I couldn't see a thing. In fact, I stepped on a feeler tentacle thing of a really huge one. That almost killed us.”

Saix appeared as if none of the information interested him in the slightest. But he did take notes. “Do you have any idea how deep the tunnel might be?”

“Nope. You should interview Kairi. She might have gone there in the past.”

“Hmm. Can you describe the largest Dark One?”

“Yeah. Kind of like a lion with a mane of tentacles. Walked on all fours – isn't that strange for the big ones?”

“For armoured types, yes.”

“I don't think this one had any armour.”

Saix made a note. “Did it leave the tunnel?”

“Yes. It followed us to the Threshold spot. Almost killed us.”

“Interesting. Some of Riku's internal injuries suggest that the Dark One you fought had more in its arsenal that just size and physical strength.”

Sora bit his lip, tried to squash his worry. Riku was fine. “I got pretty close to it, too.”

“But you weren't its main target, I assume? We can run more tests if you'd like.”

“I feel fine.” Sora shrugged, winced again as skin and muscle stretched across his back. Then jumped when the door flew open and banged in to the wall.

“Traverse Town is under siege,” Xemnas announced as he waltzed into his office, slamming the door behind him. He didn't even blink when he spotted Sora. “Since every crisis needs to be made worse, we also can't pull Leon and Cloud back, because Threshold is malfunctioning. Slightly.”

Xemnas collapsed into the chair behind his desk. Saix turned to half-face him. “What does 'slight malfunctioning' mean?”

“Nothing drastic, just that all our attempts at communication get scrambled. We haven't tried sending people, it seems too dangerous. Although...”

Saix pried Xemnas' tablet out of the man's hands. His ever-present frown deepened. “Strange.”

“I know. I think it might be our killer, trying to get rid of Leon.”

Realisation dawned on Sora and he almost fell off his chair. “You wanted Leon to go to Traverse Town, because you expected the killer to make a move.”

Xemnas met Sora's shock with a blank stare. “Yes. Leon is competent enough to keep himself and Cloud alive, and we need to catch the killer before they strike again and frighten everyone. I can't let Hollow Bastion succumb to panic.”

“Did you manage to send backup?” Saix asked.

Xemnas smiled. “No, but I contacted Merlin. He'll stay on high alert.”

Saix nodded, as if that was acceptable.

“Um, excuse me?” Sora raised a hand. “If they are besieged, by Dark Ones I assume--”

“Of course.”

“--then how is anyone going to have time to keep track of the possible culprits?”

Xemnas and Saix exchanged glances. Saix said, “you're young, Sora.”

“Whereas Leon and Cloud are old enough to know they can't trust anyone they aren't willing to die for,” Xemnas added. “You shouldn't worry. Instead, could you spend some time with Roxas? He seemed a little better after your last visit.”

Sora stood, feeling tired to his bones. He didn't like it. Hollow Bastion was an organisation of heroes on the surface, but its inner workings were the stickiest business Sora had ever encountered. He would have to talk to Leon about it. Leon seemed like the one person on equal footing with Xemnas. Maybe he would be able to do something.

If he survived his trip, of course.

“I want to see Kairi first,” Sora said. “She must be scared and confused. Maybe she could go with me to visit Roxas.”

Xemnas shrugged. “Go ahead. She's in lab 34B.”

*

The plan worked out surprisingly smoothly. Not all of Leonhart's projectiles hit their marks, but they irritated the fliers almost unfailingly. A Dark One would then swoop down to express its indignation, and have a net thrown over it by one of the rooftop teams.

Cloud's job was dispatching the ones on the ground. He enjoyed the practice, cataloguing the anomalies in his performance. Despite the slow burn in his muscles, all his limbs and joints listened to him without delay. It seemed like Relic was not only healing him and supplying him with extra energy; it also sped up information transfer in his nervous system. Or so Cloud theorised.

Whenever he was out of ammo and waiting for the Traverse Town folk to gather it back for him, Leonhart would make throwing gestures towards nearby Dark Ones. This resulted in the creatures bursting into flames, raising an unholy ruckus, and eventually dying. Cloud had tried to imitate it with his lightning, but he could get enough energy together to do more than sting his target. It worked as a way to disorient the Dark Ones and cause them to fly closer, though.

Leonhart came up to him just as Cloud slid his sword into a Dark One's skull, and put two fingers to Cloud's bare forearm. He had been periodically doing this throughout the fight.

“Well? Am I about to faint or explode, mom?” Cloud asked. He didn't bother putting too much feeling into his voice. He wasn't actually irritated.

“I'm not doing this only for your sake,” Leonhart said.

“This speeds up the bonding process, doesn't it? I thought I was supposed to have a choice in the matter.”

A sigh. “You do. I'll know if we get near the point of no return.”

“Yeah? And if you're overloading at the time, I guess you'll chivalrously let me choose my fate?”

Leonhart said nothing, but when Cloud met his eyes, he didn't look away.

A Dark One fell near them, crashing into the wall of a small house. Cloud walked over unhurriedly and speared it with his sword. “These things are barely trying. I'm pretty sure the ones that attacked Midgar were smarter and more organised.”

“That's very likely.” Leonhart materialised at Cloud's side. “Their patterns of behaviour differ slightly from world to world. These seem to lack determination, but I couldn't tell you why. It's a low-tech world. Easy.”

“Yeah.” Cloud hesitated before asking the next question. “What about your world?”

“It was technologically advanced.” Leonhart's eyes warned Cloud against prying.

“Aren't the two of us strangely similar.”

“Yes, it's occurred to me, too. But then, we're also very different.”

“True.” Cloud glanced towards Leonhart's slingshot station. “They got your ammo back. Stop dawdling.”

Leonhart's mouth twitched, most likely in amusement. “Don't order me around.”

They returned to their task. The rest of the day was mostly uneventful. People died, of course, but Cloud thought the population of Traverse Town should count themselves lucky. Without him and Leonhart, many more would have been killed. As such, he considered every death unpreventable and the lesser evil.

They went back to Merlin's little cottage and collapsed into bed. Cloud kept his back to Leonhart. He wanted to talk, and facial expressions could be distracting.

“I don't mind becoming your partner,” Cloud said. He heard Leonhart shift.

“Yeah?”

“On one condition – absolute honesty. I don't mean you need to tell me stories about yourself, but I've heard enough bullshit from you. I need to know where I stand.”

Leonhart was quiet for a while. “That's quite the request.”

“So is having someone hand over half their life to you.”

A sigh. “I don't know where to start, Cloud.”

Leonhart was lucky, because Cloud had already thought about it for him. “Tell me what you really think about the mess we're in, and who's responsible.”

“I...” Leonhart shifted again. “I can't. I don't want to change your perceptions of the people back in Hollow Bastion. If I'm wrong--”

“Look.” Cloud turned onto his other side and found himself disconcertingly close to Leonhart's stupidly attractive face. “I don't need to make friends. I'm not that much of a people person, really. So making sure I stay a neutral observer for as long as possible isn't actually helping me.”

“I don't want to influence your opinion of people.”

Cloud shrugged with one shoulder. “I trust your judgement. You've known them for a long time. And I've had enough of cluelessly stumbling about, while one of them might be a cold-blooded murderer.”

Leonhart held Cloud's gaze for a long while before closing his eyes. He turned onto his back. “Let me put my thoughts in order. Matching suspicion to faces is not the full extent of your request, is it?”

Cloud nodded, though Leonhart couldn't see him. He felt as if he was making progress. “Obviously. I want an equal relationship and no secrets. If there are no military rules to follow, I'm going to make my own.”

Leonhart's mouth curled into a tiny smile. “You were worth the wait,” he murmured, and seemed to have more to say, but he stopped himself. “Goodnight.”

“Mm.” Cloud felt the comfort of the small, cosy room envelop him the moment he closed his eyes. Leonhart's presence was a point of warmth and stability. Cloud slept.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the sweet and encouraging messages I received! (I'll reply to everyone individually soon.) Knowing that readers value my story really helped. I'm determined to keep writing this story for as long as I'm able. This means I can't really promise anything. I have a buffer, and I know where I want this story to go. Maybe I'll find passion for it again. Maybe not. As things stand, a hiatus is more likely than discontinuation, but I'll avoid both if I can. I really want to finish TDD and do it justice. I'll keep you all updated.


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